ZDay
by Uruz 66
Summary: Z-Day follows a group of survivors as they fight to survive and find out the cause of a mysterious zombie outbreak.
1. Derailed

"Freaking A... All these freaking people. I can't wait till I can get some peace and quiet," said Dugger.

"You need to get out more," said Storm.

"I suppose..." said Dugger.

"She's right, man" said Sven, standing behind Dugger waiting on the train.

Dugger sighs quietly.

The train rolls to a stop in front of the platform, it's windows filled with fire.

"Damn. Well, this can only mean one one thing..." thought Dugger to himself.

"Oh my," said Storm.

Sven watches the scene from behind. The train door opens and a body falls out engulfed in flames. A few moments later, it begins to stir. It picks itself up and begins to walk toward the group.

"Zombies," said Dugger.

Sven nods.

Storm, who by now had backed up behind Dugger was speechless.

"Plan Omega?," said Dugger.

"Yep," said Sven with glint in his eye.

"Awesome." Dugger unsheathes his switch blade, "Cindy," while Sven tosses off his jacket and pulls out his katana. He laughs. "I knew I carried this with me for a reason."

Storm, who was staring at the guys pulling out their weapons said, "Um... Are you guys forgetting about someone?"

"Of course not", I said with a smirk. He pulls a bowie knife out of his hip holster and hands it to Storm. "You know how to handle that, right?"

Storm takes the knife, flips it in the air, catches it, and throws it where it embeds it in the skull of the zombie all the way to the hilt. She walks over to the now extinguished corpse, steps on the zombies chest, pulls the knife out, wipes the blood off on her pants, and smartly palms it in a reverse grip. "Need you ask?"

Sven and Dugger laugh loudly. "Impressive. I see we aren't going to be going home that way, so lets make our way out of here."

"Agreed." Said Sven.

"I'm sticking with you guys" said Storm.

"Alright, we'll see who we can pick up along the way. This is the day I've been waiting for. I've got some friends would would love to get in on some of this action. Maybe they can help us out", said Dugger.

"Sounds like a plan", said Sven and Storm together.

"Cool, let's move."

The group proceeds together to exit the underground station, while the now reanimated bodies from the train fall out of the car and begin to feast on the people who were too dumbfounded to move. Meanwhile, the crowd rushes the exit and piles out to what they believe is safety on the street, all the while explosions and gunfire can be heard above.

"Hold up", shouted Dugger trying to be heard above the chaos.

The group pull over to the side as the crowd continues to rush the stair case.

Sven, who saw the reason why Dugger stopped, yelled out, "Najee!"

A figure who was on the other side of the stair case trying to avoid the crush of the panicked people, responded "Sven?"

"Yeah, come with us! We've got a plan!", yelled Sven back.

Najee pushed against the few stragglers on the staircase and walked over to the group.

"What's going on?", he said.

"What do you think? It's the end of the known world. Zombie uprising. And in my opinion, it's about time too.", said Dugger with a smile.

From the shadows a figure appears and walks toward the group. In his hand he held a blood stained broadsword and in the other he held a Mac-10.

"No wonder the zombies haven't reached the stairway yet. You've been busy, Dave.", said Dugger.

He nods. "You know me, where ever there is death and destruction, you know I won't be far behind. Although, I'm rather surprised that I didn't get a chance to cause this... I was so close too. But that's a story for another time. How are you faring?"

"You're talking to the Duggernaut. I haven't even begun to fight yet. Just trying to get situated. Right now we are on our way to one of my safe houses and see who I can pick up along the way."

He nods again. "I see. I should have known that it wasn't a localized event. Japan may be secure for now, but the world is still in jeopardy. Even though I do wish to one day destroy the world, it's going to be by my own hands. So, I planned ahead and went ahead and called some old friends to aid us. I think they'll be glad to see you after your actions in Japan. They'll be here in... 3,2,1..."

By now the group had reached the top of the stairwell and were on the main street. The sky was dark and the smell of death was heavy on the air. Fires raged everywhere. The Dead walked the street. A barricade the military attempted to erect was already destroyed. Spent shells littered the ground. It was evident that direct military action had failed. A few of the walking dead were obviously soldiers in their former lives, and it was evident by their blood stained uniforms. The same goes for the police officers who were among the recently re-risen dead.

"Wait, who's this gu-", Storm attempted to say but was cut off by large explosion.

Through the smoke, a UH-60 helicopter descended from the sky. On it's side was a mark which was barely visiable due to the rising flames." From the copter ropes fell to the ground and four figures ziplined to the ground. They walked toward the group and opened fire.

"Get down!", yelled Sven. He tackled Storm, while Dugger and Dave stood calmly.

The bullets passed harmlessly pass the group and took down the zombies that had begun to emerge from the train station.

Storm and Sven got up off the ground while the three figures approached the group. Dugger nodded.

"Hey guys!" said the female on the left. She wore twin swords on her hips and held an assault rifle in her hand.

"This looks fun!" said the female beside her. In her hands she held a ACR assault rifle.

"I heard you have a zombie problem... Need help?", said the guy on the right. A frying pan was on his hip and an abnormally large sniper rifle was on his back.

"Hehe... Told you I got your back.", said the man in the middle. On his back was a wicked looking katana and held an sub-machine gun in his hand.

They pulled off their flight helmets and tossed them to the ground.

On their flight suits the symbol "BK" was viable.

"Storm, Sven, and Najee, allow me to introduce you to some friends of mine. Meiko, Kanade, Kyon, and Shogou.", said Dugger with a smirk. "Welcome to the end of the world. Isn't it a pleasant day to die?"

"Hells yeah! For the zombies that is", shouted Meiko.

"Friends of yours? Awesome", commented Sven.

"I hope you guys can fight", said Storm.

"I can assure you that they can", said Dave who was busy picking off zombies in the distance with his gun.

"So can I", said Shogou, "We've been in this type of situation before. I don't know if you're aware of it, but Japan was recently over run with zombies. My friends here along with Dugger and Dave helped repel them and allowed them to rebuild."

"Me and my trusty frying pan can handle anything", said Kyon.

"Enough with the formalities, there are zombies to kill. Our first objective is to clear this street and make our way to my first safe house. There we can establish a headquarters and we'll go from there. Somebody get Najee a weapon while their at it."

Dave tosses a snub nose revolver to Najee who catches it, cycles the cylinder, closes it, and cocks back the hammer.

"Let's do this", he said.

"But before we go there, let's make sure we've got some good weapons. That barricade should have some weapons" said Shogou.

The group walks over to the barricade and picks off zombies on there way there. Kanade and Meiko fire controlled bursts into the mass of zombies and the brains begin to fly. Kyon covers the group with his sniper rifle. Meanwhile Dugger, Sven, Storm, and Dave close in and engage in brutal hand to hand combat with their bladed weapons. Dave sends limbs flying with his sword. He splits one clean in half with a vicious strike to it's skull. Sven hacks and slashes at the undead horde with deadly precision. On gets too close and he blocks it's advances by cutting off both of it's arms, and then beheading it all in one slash. Storm who had picked up an bandoleer of throwing knives from a fallen special ops trooper, was tossing knives left and right. With each knife she throws a zombie falls to the ground. Dugger, who was at the head of the group saw a group of armored military gear wearing zombies at the front of the barricade.

"They're mine!", he shouted.

He charges and his knife begins to flash. One zombie charges at him dead on, he drop kicks it in the chest, twists in mid air, and tosses his knife into the head of the one beside him. He catches himself before he hits the ground and suplexs the next zombie on it's head. The head shatters leaving a gory mess. He pull his blade out of the other zombie and beheads the next one with a mighty slash. One attempts to flank him from the side, but a shot rings out and that zombie's head dissipates in a flash. Dugger looks back and sees Najee holding his gun, the barrel smoking. He smiles. Meanwhile Shogou who was beside Dugger pulls his sword out of a zombies chest and announces that that should do it for now.

The group catches up and after rumbling thorough the military equipment scavenges a few weapons. For Sven, he receives a .50 sniper rifle. "It's game time," he says with a grin.

For Storm, she receives dual Glocks. She spins them and holsters the in her newly acquired hip holsters. "This will be fun."

Dugger acquires a M-249 SAW, a combat shot gun, MP-5, and assorted side arms. "If we meet survivors, they will need weapons."

The group nodded. Over the horizon, the sun can be seen rising. "Looks like it's going to be a busy day", said Meiko.


	2. A Bridge Too Far

"Rise and shine people. Today's another good day to die." says Dugger as he walks among the group and wakes them up from their slumber. "How's it looking up there?" he shouted to the snipers who were watching over the group as they slept.

"I've got plenty of kills while the rest of y'all slept. But I left y'all some. Couldn't have all the fun." said Sven as he lay prone on top of the wrecked remains of the military truck.

"I kept them at bay, but they just keep coming. We're going to have to move to a better spot soon." said Kyon from his position behind the concrete barricade.

"Morning already?" said Storm groggily.

"Yep." said Dugger

"While y'all have been slumbering, I have scouted out ahead. Surprisingly enough, we aren't the only ones still fighting. There are others, I can hear the gunfire. I suggest we pick them up on our way to your safe house", said Dave as he walks to the barricade.

"Sounds like a good idea", said Dugger.

"Ready and waiting!" said Meiko.

"I'm itching for a fight," said Najee as rises from his sleeping spot.

"Shogou, what's the situation looking like?" said Dugger looking over to Shogou who was operating his radio.

"Not good. The city has been over run. There are Dead walking everywhere. My helicopter is at bingo fuel, they'll have to go and refuel before it will be able to scout again", he said.

"Looks like we're hoofing it from here", said Kanade as she checks and loads her rifle. She fits a sound suppressor to the barrel.

"Keeping things quiet, huh, Kanade?" said Dugger observing the attachment to her gun. "I prefer to get go loud, but that may come in handy later."

"Never know when you need to infiltrate something", she said with a grin.

"True enough", he said with a smirk. He opens the breech of his gun and feeds a belt into the gun. He pulls back the lever and charges the gun. The gun responds with a loud clack. "Alright, first plan of action. We will proceed to our safe house and pick up any survivors who may still be fighting. Once we get to the house, we'll plan our next move. Let's move. Sven and Kyon, you two stay back at a distance and cover us with your sniper rifles. Save your rounds though until we really need them. Use your side arms for close range fighting and shout if you need help. Kanade and Meiko, you'll be watching our flanks as we move. Keep your eyes peeled. Najee, Storm, and Shogou, you'll be up front with me. I'll watch our front with my SAW. Dave, you do your thing. Everybody understand?"

Dave moved off and vanished into the shadows.

Meiko nodded.

Kanade chambered a round moved into position.

Sven tapped Dugger's shoulder and went to his position.

Kyon rapped a fist on his frying pan. "I can't wait to fight!" He went with Sven and took up his postion.

Storm checked her bandoleer and moved beside Dugger.

Najee cycled his cylinder and locked it in place. He nodded.

Shogou pulled out his sword and the blade gleamed keenly in the light. "Let's do it."

"Alright, let's move!" shouted Dugger eagerly and with that the group proceeded down the street.

The main street was unerringly quiet. The sniper work from the previous night had cleared the street. Nothing moved. Dead or alive. The flames had died down, and there was rubble everywhere. The group proceeded along cautiously for two hours fighting off the undead who wandered the side roads and passage ways when the loud report of gunfire could be heard. The group had made it to a bridge. On the other side was the safe house, only a short distance from the bridge. Cars from the people fleeing the bridge were everywhere. The Dead were walking toward the center... Toward the gun fire. There were zombies with in some of the cars, banging on windows attempting to get out, others had taken notice of the new group and began walking toward them. The others proceed to go to the center.

The group stopped.

"What's the plan?" said Storm to Dugger.

"We take this bridge. The safe house isn't that far on the other side. There are survivors fighting on the center of the bridge, I don't know how much longer they will hold out. Their gun fire is beginning to sound sporadic. They need our help, now! Sven, Kyon, take the cat walks on the side and get a view of the scene. We'll meet on the other side. Watch our backs and watch yourselves.", he said.

They moved into potions and immediately opened up fire on the zombies closest to the group.

"As for the rest of us, let's charge. But watch yourselves. Our snipers can only handle so much.", said Dugger.

Meiko slung her rifle on her back and pulled out her swords. She laughed evily.

Kanade also slung her rifle and pulled out her CZ 75 pistol and combat knfie. She chambered a round.

The rest of the group pulled out their close quarter combat weapons and awaited the command.

"I'll see you all at the center!" said Dugger

"Banzai!" shouted Shogou loudly as he charged through the cars.

The rest of the group followed suit.

The Bridge of Death

Sniper fire rained down from above and covered the groups advance. Kyon and Sven fired shot after shot and with each pull of a trigger, a zombie fell to the ground with out it's head. Upon seeing that the group was too close to assist them with gunfire, they moved up and prepared to secure the end of the bridge. Kyon and Sven nodded to each other and also pulled out their hand to hand combat weapons. Kyon hefted his fying pan happily and Sven slung his rifle and pulled out his katana. "Let's ride!" He shouted and charged the zombies that had begun to close in.

Meanwhile the rest of the group engaged with the Dead closest to them. Gunfire can still be heard from the survivors in the center so the group can only guess that they were holding strong.

Meiko danced around gracefully with her swords. Each strike she dealt was a fatal one. Fountains of blood erupted from the limbs she severed. Her blades moved in a blur and all before her fell.

Kanade jumped on top of a car, crouched and with practiced precision pulled off head shot after head shot. She dropped a magazine and quickly reloaded with her speed reloaders. One zombie managed to come up behind her, but she caught hint of it just in time, and with a swipe of her leg, tripped it up , and drilled a bullet through it's head with her pistol. "Better luck next time", she said with a smirk. She jumped off the car and proceeded through to the center with her pistol blazing.

Dave, who was operating as a scout ran into trouble himself. He was watching the rear of the group to make sure that they weren't flanked. While he had his back turned, he didn't notice the creatures that had crawled up the building behind him. One of them jumped on top of his chest, but all of a sudden a shot rang out from the distance and the creatures heads dissolved from the impact of the round. Dave turned around suddenly. He was surrounded. "Hmm..." he said. With his MAC-10 in hand and his sword in his other, he engaged the creatures, all the while, some of the creatures were taken down by the unseen sniper. Soon enough he cleared the threat. He reloaded his sub-machine gun and pulled his sword out of the back of the last creature. "That was quite interesting. I'll go see who saved my life." Dave climbed down from his scouting perch and went off to find the sniper.

Meanwhile back on the bridge the group had almost broken through to the survivors holding out at the center.

Storm and Najee had separated from the group. They soon became surrounded by zombies. Najee had his revolver and Storm had her twin Glocks. For a while they held off the advance of the zombies untill Najee ran out of ammo. In the confusion of the battle, he also separated from Storm. All alone and ammoless he stood his ground. "I guess this is it for me. I won't call for help. I'll die as I lived. A beast." He charged the first zombie and took his head and broke it's neck. He turned around and kicked one zombie over the bridge. He jabbed at the next one, but it dodged his blow and bit into his neck. He yelled out, and with a mighty punch knocked the zombie back. They continued to swarm him. He fought valiantly until his strength gave out. He soon accepted his fate and fell victim to the horde. Storm on the other hand heard his cry but by the time she realized who it was, it was too late. Najee was gone. Realizing that if she didn't fight harder, she too would fall. With this resolve, her efforts doubled. Twin Glocks in hand, she spin around in a circle and fired all her remaining ammo. She tossed them at the nearest zombie and knocked it off it's feet. She pulled out the bowie knife that Dugger gave her and ran into the fray.

The Suriviors

On the other side of the bridge Shogou and Dugger broke their way to the survivors in the center. With their blades dripping with the blood of the damned, they approached the group. The others ignored them and held their ground firing relentlessly into the approaching horde. Dugger noticed one of the survivors. He appeared to be larger than the others. Almost the size of Dugger. He wore the armor of a special forces solider. In one hand he held a zombie by the neck and had him in the air, in his other hand he had an abnormally large pistol. On his hip was a similar pistol and on his back he carried an longsword covered in runes that few would be able to understand. It was already covered in blood. He put the barrel of the pistol in its mouth and blew off it's head. He shoved a grenade down the remains of its neck and tossed the now truly dead corpse into the crowed where it knocked over three other zombies, and with the detonation of the grenade, killed at least 8 others.

"Steel!" yelled Dugger to the survivor.

The pistol and machete wielding survivor turned to Dugger and said, "Dugger. Good to see you, man. We'll catch up once we break out of here. My group has been fighting for sometime. Glad to see you come to our rescue."

"Understood." said Dugger.

He walked to each of the survivors and see how they were fairing. He introduced himself. The survivors go as follows. Ashley, wearing to colors of her Southern pride, Old Dixie, wielded a sawed off shot gun. Around her position lay dozens of shells and even more dead corpses. She had a bloody cleaver by her side. It was evident that she had put in a lot of work.

The next survivor was an old accomplice of Dugger. His name was Shawn. He wielded a M-16 and a bloody katana. Spent shell casings littered the ground around his feet. The limbs of zombies who had got too close surrounded him. "Dugger D!" he said , "I told you I'd be ready when the time comes. Let's break out of here and set up shop."

"Good to see you too. Sven's here too, we'll meet up and the end of the bridge. Get ready to move out."

The next holding position was Carlton. His weapon was a shotgun, and judging from his blood spattered appearance and the amount of bodies surrounding him, he had been quite busy.

Khalid was next in line. He was the guard of the group. He had a makeshift spear. In a former life it was used to cut tree limbs, but in his hand, it became a deadly weapon.

The last surviving survivor was Joe. He had an old fashioned crossbow. On his back he had a quiver, and from the amount of bolts in it, it was evident that he was running low.

By this time, Dugger's group had broken through to the second group.

Storm was covered in blood and had a dark gleam in her eyes. He bowie knife was caked in gore.

Meiko had run out of ammo in her assault rifle and from the state of the blood dripping off of her swords, she saw a lot of action.

Kanade who had opted to stick with her pistol was fine. Although her combat knife that she kept she kept sheathed on her combat vest gave word that the fighting had been intense.

At that moment one zombie in particular broke through the line behind Storm. She turned ashen and backed up. It was Najee. He had been zombieified. Storm tripped over herself and the zombie pounced on her. Dugger who was observing the scene, jumped and delivered a crushing flying kick to the zombie. He stepped on it's neck. "It be like that sometimes, man." And with that, Dugger put a bullet into his head, and with a single swipe of his blade, severed the neck.

His comlink cracked. It was Dave.

"Duggernaut, I've tracked a lead on the cause of this mess. I'm with somebody named Yuki. She's a skilled sniper and she says that she may know how this outbreak occurred. We will meet you at the safehouse after we confirm this lead. Try and save me some zombies while you're at it."

"Acknowledged. Try not and get yourself killed. I don't feel like putting a bullet in your head at the moment. And I hope that Yuki girl has a good weapon."

"Ha. The same goes for you. She has a bolt action rifle, but she's very skilled at it. She's almost as skilled as I am. I'm off. Good luck. Dave out." The comlink went dead.

"Alright everyone, get ready for a final assualt, we're breaking through the bridge. Let's go!"

The group charged en mass and the made short work of the remaining zombies. When they reached the end of the bridge, they were met with the sight of dozens of dead zombies. Leaning against the side of the bridge were Sven and Kyon. Sven had just finished snapping the neck out of one zombie and pull his sword out of another. Kyon was brushing the blood off of his frying man. It was heavily dented and covered in blood.

"What took y'all so long?" said Sven.

"This was awesome!" said Kyon.

"We've been busy, and we lost Najee. But we rescued the survivors. Now we're on the way to our safehouse."

At that moment a 24-wheeled trucker stormed the bridge and flipped. It exploded and knocked the group off it's feet. From the flames emerged creatures that pounced with in a few feet of the group.

"Hunters!" yelled Kyon.

A lone figure emerged from the flames. He walked up to the group.

Dugger, Meiko, Shogou, and Steel took a step backwards.

"Told you I'd be back", said the figure.


	3. Crossroads

(Scene- Evening. The bridge lies behind. It is covered with bodies from the previous battle. A wrecked big rig lies in front. A light rain begins to fall)

The figure steps through the flames of the crashed big rig.

"I told you I'd be back," said the figure.

The group is speechless. Dugger steps forward. "I knew I should have finished you off the last time we met."

"Is that anyway to greet a teammate?" said the figure.

"You damn straight it is," said Steel stepping forward. "I won't forgive your betrayal, Uruz."

"Ah, Steel. We meet again. How have you been?" said Uruz with a smirk.

"Better than you're going to be when I finish with you." replied Steel.

"Uruz, we also used to fight together, I used to follow you into battle. But if you insist on killing innocents, I'll put you down myself. Plus, I've always wanted to fight you anyway. Let's see what you've got." said Meiko pulling out her swords and stepping beside Steel and Dugger.

Dugger turned his head and looked back at the group.

"This is a battle between us and Uruz, we'll have to handle this. We'll take care of these guys here. Shogou, you and Sven know the location of the safe house. Lead the group there, but be careful. The road ahead is dangerous. Use caution."

"We'll get them there," said Shogou.

"I got ya, dawg," said Sven pulling out his katana.

"Good luck," said Dugger turning back to face Uruz.

"You really think that I'm just going to let them pass?" said Uruz, "Although on the other hand, I think I will... I have plans for them."

The group took a final look at Dugger, Meiko, and Steel. Sven and Kyon tapped Dugger's shoulder as they passed. Shawn nodded knowingly at them. Kanade yelled out "Give them hell!" as she passed. The rest of the group nodded as they passed. Some of them were too tired from the earlier battle to give a reply, but one survivor went up and stood beside Dugger.

"I want to stay and fight." said Khalid seriously as he stamped his makeshift spear on the ground.

Dugger turned to him and replied, "This is not your battle. I sense power in you. Protect the rest of the survivors. You will get a chance to show you strength."

Khalid nodded grudgingly. "I understand. Do you best." He trotted off and went to rejoin the rest of the group.

"Are you all finished?" replied Uruz smugly.

Without replying, Steel, Meiko, and Dugger dashed forward and began attacking the Hunters. Uruz stood back and watched the battle.

"Don't get so cocky!" yelled Dugger. "Formation Alpha!"

"Got ya!" replied Steel. They vaulted over the Hunters and swung their blades down toward Uruz, but before their blades could strike home, sparks flew and they were pushed back. Two figures dressed in black operations gear wielding katanas materialized in front of Uruz. He laughed.

"Specters!" said Dugger and Steel simultaneously.

"Yes, our cloaking technology has been perfected. I thought you would like to see it." said Uruz. From his back he pulled out twin Buster Swords. They glowed with a faint light. "Oh no you didn't," he said faintly and advanced on Steel and Dugger.

"Let's do this!" said Dugger. And with that Dugger and Steel crossed blades with the Specters and Uruz, while behind them Meiko continued to battle the group of Hunters.

Meanwhile on the other side of town, Yuki and Dave continue their pursuit to find the cause of the outbreak.

"Do you know where we going?" said Dave from behind Yuki. He had been following her through the town, battling the undead through out the entire journey.

"Yes." she replied.

"You know, I could just blow a hole in the wall. I've brought plenty of explosives with me..." said Dave with a slight smile.

"Impossible," replied Yuki.

They had stopped outside of a large building. The wall was completely blank. Yuki placed her palms on the wall at several points.

"What are you doing?" said Dave. "I can assure you that this is a wall." He rapped a fist on the wall. "See, wall is hard."

Yuki didn't reply. After a minute of touching the wall, a panel with a keypad appeared from the wall. With rapid succession, she entered in keystrokes.

Dave, take back, was silent.

Soon enough the panel glowed green and retracted back into the wall seamlessly. A doorway appeared and Yuki entered.

"Clever." said Dave. He followed her into the building.

The two look around. They have entered a large facility. Rows upon rows of computer equipment and scientific experiments fill the room. Screens are everywhere. Along the walls are glass cylinders the size of your average human. Within the cylinders there are creatures floating in some type of liquid. Some appear to be human, and others are far from it. Yuki and Dave explore the facility. They search each of the rooms but they all appear to hold the same equipment. Soon they enter the final room at the far end of the facility. One of the computer screens glows faintly. Yuki approaches the screen and attempts to access it. Dave takes the time to explore on his own. Within one of the rooms he sees a enclosed room that has a window. He looks in. Within the room on one of the counters is a strange liquid.

"I knew it! This outbreak is all too similar to the one in Japan. Some how he must have gottenthe plans for my virus. I must get it back."

He puts his gun up to the glass and fires, but the bullets ricochet off the window. "Damn, I should have known it wouldn't be that easy." He places a small amount of C-4 on the window and backs off. He presses the detonator and the C-4 detonates. Once the smoke clears, the window is still intact, although it is slightly blackened. "Clever, very clever. Very well, if I can't have it no one will. Knowing that bastard, there must be a contingency plan. Perhaps the girl can help me out." His comlink buzzes. It's Yuki.

"I've found something," she says.

Dave rushes back. On the computer screen a long string of equations streams followed by a world map. All of the world major cities were highlighted. Yuki pressed a button and arrows begin appearing from certain locations and landed on the cities. Two were red and the others were green. One arrow pointed at Japan and the other pointed to the city that they are in.

"Damn," said Dave. "He really plans on world domination, doesn't he?"

Yuki nodded.

"Let me see something, move aside." Dave sat down at the computer and keyed in a long sting. On the map a location off the shore of Japan was highlighted. "That's it. That's where it all began. We have to get there." But at that moment, the screen went blank, and a moment later a face appeared on screen.

"I knew you'd find me. Be that as it may, I cannot let out live. Good bye."

"Vincent!" shouted Dave. But the screen remained blank.

"We should leave," said Yuki quietly.

"Yes, let's go. We have to let the other know."

As Dave and Yuki prepare to leave, the lights shut off. Sirens begin to blare and red alarm lights begin to activate. "Lockdown and purge in progress. Time remaining: 5:00 minutes. Evacuate facility immediately," said a computerized voice from the PA system.

"You heard her, let's go!" yelled Dave. The two run for the exit, but they find the door sealed shut.

"Not good and I can't blow through this type of material. I'll have to hack the door. Give me two minutes," said Dave.

"No, I will do it," she replied.

"Fine, no time to argue. Just do it," said Dave.

Without hesitation, Yuki turned and began typing into the keypad. The PA system spoke again. "Unauthorized access attempt. System compromised. System failure. Storage containers failed."

The sound of breaking glass and pouring liquid can be heard all around.

"Bio-hazard detected, lock-down initiated... Failed. Self destruct imminent."

"Yuki, we have to go now!" yelled Dave. Yuki continued typing silently. From the alarm light lit room, the creatures that were once held with in the storage containers charged toward Dave. "Hmm. Death comes soon. This will be quite fun." He charged and began fighting the creatures. "I'll hold them off, you get that door open!" he yelled out as he whipped around with his sword and decapitated a creature that tried to jump on him.

"Yes, and I will assist you," she replied. With one hand she continued to key in keystrokes and with the other she fired her bolt action rifle without looking. Some how she managed to retract and reload the rifle bolt single handily all the while she attempted to open the door.

Dave, who by now didn't even begin to ponder how she was able to perform such an action continue to fight the creatures. As he fought, shot after shot rang out from Yuki. With his submachine gun in hand and sword in the other, he continued to buy time for Yuki.

"Three minutes remaining," the PA systems said.

Ignoring the system, Dave and Yuki fought on. He spun around and beheaded one creature and the one beside it took a shot in the chest from Yuki's assistance. He turned and stuck his gun in the mouth of another and pulled the trigger, he blew off its head and turned around and fired at one who was getting too close to Yuki, he took out its legs, spun around and reloaded all the while he impaled another that had jumped on his side. With a kick he knocked two back. Now this his gun was reloaded, he crouched and fired in a semi circle by Yuki. Five creatures dropped, but they continued restlessly. Out of ammo, he dropped his gun and weilded his broad sword in a two handed grip. He swung in a wide arch and cut down three more, but a few slipped by him. Yuki, who had also ran out of ammo was aware of the creatures approaching her. With her free hand, she tossed the rifle mightily. It went through two creatures and embedded itself in a wall thirty feet away, taking the guts of the two creatures it went through with it. The three other creatures charged Yuki. Dave who was busy fighting the rest of group was unable to assist her. Still typing on the keyboard, Yuki straightened her free hand. She slammed it through the chest of the first creature to reach her and grabbed its spine. She took this creature and used it as a club. She knocked the next creature to approach off to the side. The creature who she had her arm in continued to snarl and bite at her. She ripped its spine out and tossed it too to the side. One of the creatures leaped at her. When it came down, she grabbed it around its head and crush it. Gore splattered her clothes. Seeing that the immediate threat was clear she returned to type on the keyboard with her other hand."Two minutes remaining," sounded the system. By now Dave had fought off the remaining Hunters, but now an even larger creature approached. It appeared to be a heavily mutated zombie. For arms he had spiked claws and for a head it appeared that it had sunk within its body. "Bloody hell, Tyrants?" said Dave exhaustively. "Oh well." He ran to the creature, ducked it's swiped and stuck his sword through its body. The creature didn't even flinch. The creature knocked him back and he slammed into the door. "Ow..." said Dave.

Yuki turned to Dave and said "Done." The door opened. The two fled out of the facility and ran as fast as they could.

The creature continued to the door as the PA system spoke "Five, four, three, two, one..." The facility exploded.

Yuki and Dave continued to run even after they heard they explosion. The shockwave was so powerful even though they were some distance from the facility, they were knocked off their feet. They landed in a heap. The two turned around and looked at the rising smoke plume.

"How much longer do you think we had left?" said Dave as he brushed the dirt off his cloths.

"Enough." replied Yuki.

"Right." said Dave. "I better contact the others and tell them the news." He attempted to use his comlink, but it turns out that the explosion was nuclear so the EMP blast disabled his electronics. "That's not working. I guess we'll have to tell them personally. Let's head to the safe house. Hopefully the others have made it back by now."

"Okay." replied Yuki.

The two gathered themselves up and started the walk back to the safe house.

Meanwhile, the group of survivors continued on their way to the safe house.

"Not much further left," said Sven. Shogou nodded in agreement. "It's just across that railroad tracks and on the right."

The group cheered up at this news. As they came up to the railroad tracks, Sven stopped. "Something's not right." he said.

"What's wrong," said Storm.

"It's quiet. Too quiet." said Sven.

At that moment, a loud collective roar could be heard. The stamp of many feet and something much larger shook the ground.

"Darn it!" shouted Sven. "We can't go to the safe house yet. If we lead them too it, we'll be compromised and all that we have fought for will be for nothing. We hold here!"

"You heard my dawg though," said Shawn walked up and stood beside Sven.

"Set up defensive positions," said Shogou. "We'll have to stand our ground. Sven and Kyon, you two are our heavy weapons and snipers, I want you covering us from that building over there. Sven and Kyon nodded and ran off to set up position. Shawn ran after them.

"If things get too hot, I'll be there to help you two out," he said when he caught up to them.

"Just like old times," Sven said with a laugh.

"Let's do our best, brothers," said Kyon as he set up his heavy caliber sniper rifle. He set his trusty frying pan down beside him so he will have quick access if the zombies broke through the line.

"Kanade and I will be in the middle. We will form the line. Our assault rifles will be able to take a lot of them down. But, when they begin to close in, I want the rest of you to open up fire with your weapons." said Shogou as he and Kanade moved into the middle of the street.

"Khalid, when they break through, and I know they will, we will count on you to hold the line as we fall back. I've seen your skills on the bridge. That weapon of yours will be able to take a lot of them out. Go for the legs if you can, that will pile them and slow them down hopefully." he said as he prepared his rifle.

"You can count on me," he replied grimly. He spun his makeshift spear and struck it to the ground. "None shall pass!" He moved behind Shogou and stared ahead. The yellow eyes of the zombies could now be seen in the distance. The sound of them running increased. The rain picked up slightly.

The rest of the group nodded their acknowledged and moved into position.

Ashley and Carlton moved to either side Kanade and Shogou and loaded shells in their shotguns.

Joe fitted a bolt into a crossbow and looked down the sights. He shook with anticipation.

Storm stood beside Khalid and loaded her Glocks. She put a hand on his shoulder. "Ready?"

He nodded.

By now the horde had almost closed in on the group. Shogou and Kanade opened fire. "Yee haw!" yelled Ashley.

The first zombies tripped up, but there were many, many more. Kanade yelled "Frag out!" and tossed her fragmentation grenades. They rolled into the group and exploded with loud bangs. She tore two large holes into the horde, but yet they continued to close in. By this time, Sven, Kyon, and Shawn had opened fire. They picked off many zombies, but no matter how many they shot the horde continued on relentlessly. When the horde had closed in with in 50 feet of the group, the rest of the survivors opened up fire. Carlton and Ashley fired their shells into the group and took down many of the zombies. Storm stepped up and opened up fire with her twin Glocks. She always aimed for the head. She fired two long bursts and stopped a full line. Joe picked off zombies one by one with his crossbow.

By now a wall of dead bodies began to form on the middle of the street. Some of them noticed the sniper fire and headed to the building with the snipers.

Shogou gave the order to fall back and form a new line behind the rail road tracks. The group complied. Khalid stood his ground along with Storm. The others fired as they ran back. Zombies continued to fall. They had finally reached Khalid and Storm. With a mighty shout he swung his spear. The zombies clashed against him. But he was a rock against the sea and he would not yield. With each mighty swing he took down dozens of many zombies. Storm who was watching his back cleaned up the stragglers with her Glocks. Khalid swung low and took out the legs of a large group, he jumped and with another slash decapitated another group. He spun around with his spear outwards and became a tornado of death. Bits and pieces of zombies flew everywhere. Storm, ducked and weaved among the group. She holstered one of her guns and now had her bowie knife in one of her hands. She shot and cut at whatever was near her. She let none get close. She became a blur within the horde, and together with Khalid decimated a large amount of them. And yet, they were only two and those that could not touch them, continued on to the rest of the group, despite this Storm and Khalid fought on, not giving ground.

In the distance four large shadows appeared. Their footsteps cause the very ground to tremble. They slowly approached the line of survivors.

"Tanks!" yelled Kyon. He took aim and opened fire on the Tanks. He pumped round after round into them

"I know, but we got problems of our own, they're coming up!" shouted Sven as he fired a few rounds at the closest Tank. He dropped his sniper rifle and stood beside Shawn.

"Take care of those guys, I got these" replied Kyon as he continued to fire at the Tanks. He dropped on of the Tanks. As it hit the ground, it left a crater.

"Got it," said Shawn and Sven together. They both pulled out their katanas and nodded at each other. "Let's freaking do this!" yelled Sven as the first zombies came up the stairs. With a mighty kick, he knocked a zombie off his feet and caused it to fall down the stairs taking many more with it. They continued to come up. Sven gave another kick to the head of another zombie as it came up the stairs. The zombie's head disintegrated from the impact and fell to its knees, where Shawn knocked it over with a kick. The two stood side by side and begin to cut down the zombies as they came up the stairs. In unison the two, cut, ducked, and spun. They danced a dance of death. Sven cut the limbs off of one zombie, and Shawn beheaded it. The two kicked in unison and sent the zombie flying down the stairs. "24 Lead" shouted Shawn. Sven nodded and with a mighty slash, beheaded five zombies at once. Shawn using this opening, dived through the gap with his word swinging and jumped over the head of the zombies coming up. He came up behind the zombies, and began cutting them down. Sven at the top of the stairs used the confusion of the zombies and began to work his way down the stairs, hacking and slashing the entire way down. Shawn and Sven cleaned up the remaining zombies and met at the middle of the stairs. "Let's move and help our friends out," said Sven. Shawn nodded and the two dived into the fray and worked their way to Khalid and Storm.

Meanwhile, Kyon had taken down the third Tank. He aimed at the last one and pulled the trigger. His gun clicked empty. "Empty... Darn! Time to bring out my frying pan!" With that he leaped out the window and charged the last Tank. The Tank was a massive creature. It had limbs the size of full grown trees and had the chest the size of a mini van, and yet, despite seeing that, Kyon continued to charge. The Tank reached into the ground and pulled up a chunk of concrete, he tossed it at Kyon. Kyon ducked just in time, and the concrete block slammed into the building behind him and caused it to crumble to the ground. Kyon slid between the legs of the Tank as it missed it's swipes at him and with a mighty swing of his frying pan, caused the leg of the Tank to collapse, he took the opportunity to climb on the Tanks back as it recovered. The Tank attempted to grab him, but due to his massive size was unable too. The Tank tossed back and fourth in an attempt to throw it off, but Kyon held fast. He reached back, and with all of his strength swung his frying pan down into the head of the Tank. The frying pan hit home. The Tank's head was crushed under the impact. Kyon jumped off the Tank before it fell to the ground with a tremendous thud. "Awesome!" he said. And raced back to the rest of the group.

By now the numbers of the zombies had begun to thin out thanks to the efforts of the group. But one survivor had fell. Joe who tried to reload his crossbow and retreat at the same time, tripped over a rock. The zombies quickly fell on him. He took the crossbow bolt in one hand and began to jam it into the heads of the zombies. He took down a few, but there were too many. He was soon ripped apart by the zombies and horde pressed on.

As for the rest of the group, the fighting began to get intense as the battle wore on. Even though there weren't that many zombies left, ammo was running low so the group was forced to fight hand to hand. Luckily the group were familiar with close quarter combat so they were able to handle themselves.

Kanade and Shogou fought back to back. Shoguo has slung his rifle and was hacking through the zombies with his katana while Kanade had once again pulled out her knife and pistol. The two made short work of their zombies.

Ashley and Carlton were also holding strong, but Carlton was reckless. He fired his shotgun as fast as he could, and soon ran out of ammo. He resorted to using it as a club, while Ashley on the other hand was more precise with her shots. But soon she too ran out of ammo. She pulled out her cleaver and went wild. Blood flew everywhere with each of her hacks. She cut to the sights, cutting off the limbs of many zombies, and soon she was cutting high and the heads began to roll. But despite her efforts she could not assist Carlton, who's make shift club had broke and he was reduced to fighting with his hands. He was bitten many times, and yet he continued to fight. His strength bled away and he passed out. The zombies fell on him and tore his body to pieces. Ashley, who witnessed all of that steeled herself and continued to fight her way through and went to rejoin Kanade and Shogou. The three soon finished off the remaining zombies. Kyon, Sven, Shawn, Khalid, and Storm rejoined the group shortly after. They were covered in blood and exhausted, but they were unharmed. The group took notice of who died in the battle, and took a moment to count their losses.

"Alright everyone, we fought hard. We lost a lot, but we will not let their deaths go in vain," said Shogou. "The safe house is right over there." The group reached the building a short time later. The building was made completely out of concrete and buried partially with in the earth. Sven walked to the door and enter the code in that only he and a few other knew. The door opened and the group opened. The group look around the building.

"Home sweet home," said Storm.

Sven closed the door and secured the building.

Back on the bridge, the battle with Uruz and his minions raged on.

Steel and Dugger fought back to back, parry blows from both the Specter and Uruz. Meiko was still fighting the Hunters. Three hunters jumped on Meiko at once. She caught one on the tip of the blade and tossed it to the side. She kicked the other one and deflected the other one with her sword. She sliced with one arm and cut off it's leg and turn and cut off its head with her other sword. She ran to the other two and made short work of them. With one sword she impaled it and split it in half, and with her other sword, she slashed at the other Hunter, and when she pulled her sword from other Hunter, brought both swords in the air and cleaved it in two. Around her lay the bodies of twenty zombie Hunters all of them in various states of dismemberment. The ground was which was already soaked from the rain, had turned red. Meiko seeing that Uruz and Steel were outnumber, jumped up and joined the fight.

"What took you so long?" yelled Dugger as he parried a blow from one Specter and struck another one at Uruz.

"You know me, had to make my kills flashy!" Meiko said as she engaged with one Specter. "I'll take these guys, you guys handle Uruz."

"Got it" said Dugger as he kicked Uruz back.

Steel disengaged from his Specter and went to join Dugger. "Yell if you need help," he said as he jumped at Uruz.

"Will do!" she said as she fought the Specters.

"Just like old times, right comrades?" said Uruz as he struck at Uruz and parried a strike from Steel.

"You know it!" said Dugger as he continued to press his attack against Uruz.

"Good times, good times!" said Steel and he parried a blow.

While Dugger and Steel fought against Uruz, Meiko had her hands full with the Specters. She was fighting both of them simultaneously. She parried blow after blow. She kicked at one and knocked him off his balance, while he was distracted she took the opportunity and struck at the Specter with both of her swords, one low and one high. The Specter parried one of her blows, but since they came staggered, her other sword which came low, cut his thigh. He staggered and she thrust with the sword and stabbed him in the stomach. He grabbed the blade and pulled it out, and at that time the other Specter recovered and and rejoined the battle. The Specter used his partners distraction and cut at Meiko's leg. The cut grazed her and caused her to stagger back. She turned around and cut off his head and returned to attack the other Specter. The battle intended, she kicked again, but he blocked the blow with his sword and continued to attack, they went blow for flow, until she saw a opening in his defense, she stabbed with her sword and nicked his side, but at the same time, he caught her with a strike to the chest, she grunted, and stepped back. Taking both swords in a "X" cross, she cut down toward the Specter. He attempted the block, but the double strike broke his defense and Meiko's swords slammed down on his head, breaking his helmet, and cleaved his skull. He fell back. Meiko collapsed to the ground exhausted and bleeding from her wounds. She lay back as Uruz and Steel continued to battle with Uruz.

Sparks flashed from the blades as the three continued attack.

"Screw this," said Steel. With one hand he struck at Uruz with his sword and with his other he pulled out his pistol and fired point blank at Uruz. The instant he fired was the instant that he wasn't there. Uruz had moved to the side and avoided the bullet so fast that the two barely saw him move. He continued to strike and parry blows as Steel emptied his gun into Uruz. Uruz dodged all of the shots. He moved faster than the human eye. With one of his swords he caught Steels gun and knocked it from the ground, Steel, momentarily stunned stepped back. Uruz, thrust in with his shoulder hit Steel in the chest. He went flying back and hit one of the cars, leaving his impression in the side of the door. Dugger, noticing an opening, slashed viciously at Uruz and knocked one of his swords out of his hand. Uruz, redoubled his efforts and with his free hand, caught Dugger in the chest with a massive punch. Dugger, who saw the punch, allowed it to glance to his side. He grunted, but at the same time brought his arm down and caught Uruz's arm in his arm pit. He pulled him to his body and sent him flying twenty feet. Steel who had recovered jumped behind Uruz and grabbed his arms. Uruz reversed and flipped him over where he landed on his back. Dugger delivered a flying kick to his chest but he held strong, he caught Dugger's foot and pushed him back. Dugger and Steel nodded to each other and charged. At the last moment, the two reversed and tackled Uruz. Dugger had pulled out his knife thrust it downward at Uruz's chest. Uruz crossblocked and caught the blade between his arms. Steel, seeing an opening, dropped an elbow on his chest. The blow knocked the wind out of Uruz, and allowed Dugger to stab him. The knife caught him in his chest and stayed there. Uruz pulled the knife out and slashed at Dugger. Dugger caught the knife arm in one hand and with the other reversed it. Steel took the opportunity and got behind Uruz and put him in a choke hold around his neck. A moment later a sword passed through Uruz chest. Meiko had dragged her self over to the two and stabbed him with one of her swords. Uruz look down at the wound and tried to pull the blade out, but Dugger kicked the sword further through his chest and Steel broke his neck. The sound reverberated though the air. Dugger took his knife and cut off Uruz's head.

"Finally, it's over," said Steel who sat down exhausted.

"Meiko, are you alright?" He picked her up in his arms.

She smiled weakly. She tried to speak but nothing blood came out.

"Damn! Meiko, hold on! We'll get you to safety! Don't die on me!" shouted Dugger. Steel, burn the body. We have to get back to the safe house. There are medical supplies there."

Steel picked up Uruz's body and tossed him in the flames.

"Let's go."

Steel and Dugger, with Meiko in his arms ran to the safe house.

Dugger with Meiko in one arm keyed open the entrance.

The three entered the house and the group inside said greetings but Dugger only said "Shogou and Storm, she needs help, come with me."

Dugger laid Meiko on the table and cut off her blood soaked uniform around the cut. The wound was deep, but the blade hadn't struck any vital organs.

Meiko tried to speak, but she couldn't. She faded out...


	4. The Safe House

"Shoot! Why'd this have to happen?" said Sven.

"I know right, she was a good warrior," said Shawn.

"No!" yelled Kyon.

"It be like that sometimes," said Dugger.

On the TV screen, the group had just witnessed the death of Zoey from the video game Left 4 Dead 2.

"You guys play too many games," said Meiko. She was laying on the couch. She was recovering from her injuries from the previous battle. Bandages were wrapped around her midsection where she was struck from the earlier battle. Kanade was by her side taking care of her.

"How you holding up?" said Dugger as he walked over to her.

"Much better. Kanade is a pretty good medic. I should be back to full strength in no time," she said as she sat up to let Kanade check her bandages.

"Glad to hear it. Get some rest. You did good."

Meiko nodded and lay back down.

Storm was asleep in one of the bedrooms.

Dugger walked down to the surveillance room.

"What's that smell? It smells freaking delicious," said Sven from the couch. Sven, Kyon, and Shawn were now watching zombie movies on the TV. The safe room had a huge collection.

"Food's almost ready!" yelled Ashley from the kitchen. She stirred the pot and sniffed it. She smiled and continued to prepare food.

"I can't wait to try some of your cooking. I'm starving," said Kyon. As he got up and went to the kitchen.

"Me too. I haven't eaten in hours," said Sven.

"You fat. I saw you snacking on those Pop-tarts while you were sniping."

"Hey man, I had to keep my strength up. Fighting zombies is a very energy draining process."

"Sure man. Whatever you say." Shawn chuckled.

Back in the kitchen, Kyon was helping Ashley prepare the food. "Hey, why don't you try some of these spices?" said Kyon as he reached up and pulled down the ingredients from the cabinet.

She looked at what he pulled down. "Looks good, I'll try them out."

"Awesome," said Kyon.

Back down in the surveillance room, plans were beginning to formulate.

"How are things looking out there?" said Dugger.

"All's clear with no movement" said Khalid looking at the TV screens which were connected to the cameras mounted on the perimeter of the safe house. In his hands he held a wickedly sharp pike. He was sharpening it with on of the many sharping stones from the armory. "By the way, thanks for the weapon. I think I can put in some good work."

Security Center

"No problem. Can't have you continuing to use that limb cutter. That's a real weapon right there." said Dugger as he observed the TV screens himself.

"Oh, I know." he said with a smile as he continue to grate the stone against the head of the pike.

"How about you, Shogou?" said Dugger looking over to Shogou where he sat at the communications board.

"Not good. The city has been completely over run. There are a few pockets of resistance, but not much remains. The Dead are everywhere. But I have picked up something quite interesting from the chopper. It seems that there is a huge crater in the middle of the city."

Dugger chuckled. "That would be Dave's work. The guy loves explosions. I guess he's been busy. He should be returning soon with Yuki."

"I see. So what's the plan for now?" said Shogou.

"We wait on Dave. I need to see what he's found. Even though this town is a lost cause, we can still stop this from spreading though out the world. Once we have fully rested up and recovered, we will move out and make plans to attack this problem at the source."

"Sounds good. I'll keep in contact with the chopper and see how the rest of the country is holding out."

"Got ya. I'm about to go and see how Steel's holding up."

Shogou nodded and went turned back to the communication relay.

The Armory

Dugger walked to the back room to find Steel checking the weapons in the armory. The walls were lined with guns of all calibers and bladed weapons ranging from combat knives all the way to scythes. Steel was sitting at the table in the middle of the room loading a bag with ammunition and assorted guns.

"Quite an impressive collection you've got here, man." said Steel looking up from his work.

"I know. I've been preparing for something like this for some time now. You got everything you need?" said Dugger as he took a knife off the wall and began examining it.

"Yeah. This is just something extra I thought I might need. My engraved pistols and sword will do just fine. But you never know what we might meet out there."

"Just like old times, huh?"

"We the Snow Wolves of the Specter Mercenaries. You know how I do."

Dugger chuckled. "That I do, man. That I do. So what happened to you after I left the Specters?"

Steel put down the box of ammunition that he was loading in his gun and looked at Dugger. "I went on some missions. Did some work in some foreign countries. Kill some people. The usual. Beyond that, I really can't say." He went back to loading his weapons. "It's good to see you back though. Can't keep the Snow Wolves separated like I always said."

"You right about that." Dugger was twirling a particularly cruel looking knife in his hands. "I like this one, I think I'll take it with me." He sheathed the knife in a holster on his back. It was big enough to be considered a small sword.

Steel was watching him. "You always did like your knives, didn't you?"

"Yep," said Dugger with his back turned as he began looking at the sub-machine guns on the wall.

Steel took out one of his throwing knives and threw it at Dugger. Dugger who sensed the movement, had already pulled out his knife and blocked the blade before it could hit him. He spun around and threw one of his knives at Steel also. Steel ducked and dived over the table at Dugger. But Dugger, who was already one step above him, tackled him out of midair. The two landed in a heap and each of them had their knives out and at each others throats.

Steel and Dugger chuckled and both of them clashed blades.

"Just like good times, old buddy." said Steel who back off.

"Indeed." said Dugger who backed off and sheathed his own knife.

The two chuckled. "Let's go get some food. I think Kyon and Ashley are already finished." said Dugger.

"Right behind you, man." said Steel. The two walked off to grab Khalid and Shogou so they could go eat.

The group met in the dining room. Shawn and Sven had paused their game and sat down at the dinner table. Kanade helped Meiko to her seat and then sat down herself. Dugger, Shogou, and Steel also took their seats. Khalid remained downstairs to monitor the screens. Ashley had already brought his food down so that he could eat.

"I'm starving!" said Kanade.

"Me too!" said Sven.

Dugger who was looking over the group laughed. "I'm kinda hungry too. Let's eat."

At that moment Kyon and Ashley came out of the kitchen. Kyon carried a large bowl. He put what looked like rice on everybody's plate. "Pattaya rice," he said with a smile. "I hope you all enjoy it." While Kyon was setting out his food, Ashley also set out her food. Fried chicken and mashed potatoes. "Dig in y'all."

"Oh yeah!" said the group simultaneously. They began to eat. After about 30 minutes of light chatter and laughter they group finished their feast.

"I'm stuffed," said Sven and Shawn. "Let's get back to the game." The two put their plates up and went back to the living room.

Everybody else said their thanks and returned to what they were doing previously. Kanade helped Meiko back to the couch. Kyon, Ashley, and Storm, who volunteered to help put up the dishes, returned to the kitchen to clean up. Khalid switched places with Dugger and went to go relax in the living room. Suddenly Dugger ran back up to the stairs. "Somebody's at the door."

The group gathered their weapons and took up positions around the door.

"Who is is?" said Storm holding her Glock tightly.

Dugger looked on the monitor next to the door. "Old friends."

Dugger opened the door and in walked Dave and the girl who he had met on his journey.

"Long time no see, man. Glad you made it back safely. This must be Yuki, right?"

She nodded slightly. "Yes."

"Indeed she is. Not much for talking but she is quite skilled in battle. Saved my life quite a few times. She's on my level for killing things. That aside, it's good to see you all made it. I have some information that we managed to retrieve from the facility before it exploded."

The group voiced their greetings and went to the living room to hear the news.

"Alright, let's hear it." said Dugger.

Dave stood in the center while Yuki went over to a chair in the corner and pulled out a book and began reading.

"Um. Yuki, do you have anything to say?" said Kyon looking over to her.

She nodded. "Yes. But I will let him explain for now." She went back to her book.

The group looked to Dave.

"Well, on my little journey with Yuki, I managed to learn quite a bit about this outbreak. First of all, it's not natural. But I'm sure you all know that by now. When we went into the facility we say the experiments and the projects that they were developing. It seems that they have been devising this for quite sometime now. Vincent, who I'm sure you remember from the Japanese outbreak is also behind this. The virus was released by direct contact, meaning that somebody was infected and put out into society to begin spreading it. It spread out of control before the military became aware, and by that time it was too late for their intervention. The virus is spread by fluid. So that means biting, saliva, blood transfer, ectera. If you have open wounds, you better make sure it's well protected before you fight. Biting is instant transmission. As of right now there is no cure, but I believe that Yuki is working on something.

The group looked over to her. She nodded. They looked back to Dave.

"Before I was kicked out of the system, I saw that the center where the majority of the research was done is one of the island off of Japan. To neutralize this threat we have to take the fight there. That's the source of all the problems. But I learned one more thing. This is beyond just a military incident there's somethi-"

At that moment, the lights flickered and went out. Ashley and Storm yelled out. The rest of the group pulled out their weapons. The flickered back on. In the middle of the room a creature had appeared.

"What the heck is that!" yelled Sven and Shawn simultaneously.

"Kill him!" yelled Kanade pulling out her rifle.

The creature raised his arms and spoke. His voice deep and gravely. "Wait."

Yuki walked up beside him and said, "Meet, Nightbane."

Dave sighed. "When I said introduce yourself, I didn't mean like this..."


	5. Answers

"So what is this thing?" said Kanade. She and the rest of the household had their weapons trained on the mysterious creature. All but Yuki and Dave. The other nodded that they would also like to know.

"Nightbane." said Yuki.

Dave sighed. "As Yuki has said, this is Nightbane. We met him on our journey from the facility. But I believe it would be best if he explained who he is and why he is here." Dave nodded to Nightbane.

"Very well." His voice was unnaturally dark and somewhat sinister. It made the household even more nervous than they already were. "My name is Nightbane. At least that is my name in mortal tongue."

"Hold up," said Dugger interrupting him. "What do you mean 'mortal tongue?" Dugger's weapon was also trained on Nightbane. His aim was unwavering.

"I don't like this guy." said Kyon.

Nightbane turned toward Dugger. His gazed seemed to pierce into Dugger's very soul, but Dugger didn't flinch. He returned his stare. "To put it simply, I am not from this world."

"Like that wasn't obvious," said Sven. "Nothing gets past us that easily... Unless it's something we haven't met before. And me and Dugger have faced a lot." His sniper rifle was pointed at the creatures head.

Nightbane ignored him. He looked over to Steel. His eyes flashed darkly. "Don't YOU have anything to say?"

Steel starred right back at him. Something flashed behind his eyes, but only Dugger noticed it. "I've got nothing to say to you, Demon. Hurry up and explain yourself, we don't have all day."

Nightbane's eyes returned to normal. At least what seemed normal to everybody else. "If that is what you wish. But I see what you are hiding. But I digress. Back to the subject at hand. I have traveled a very far distance to find you all. I'm sure you're all familiar with a place called Hell."

"Wait, what?" said Storm. She was apparently taken back from his response.

"As I said before, I'm not of the world. This outbreak has caused some problems with my realm. Damned souls are leaving Hell and returning to the world of the living. I believe you call these creatures, 'zombies.' Since I'm the ruler of that region, I can't have my citizens just roaming around with out my supervision. I traveled through the Portal to find you all. There are not many survivors left. Normally, I would be able to handle such an event myself, but my journey though the portal has weakened me. Whoever opened the portal was inexperienced, thus causing the leak into this world. I am unable to close the portal without help. I am enlisting you all to join my cause."

"So you just expect us you help you out?" said Khalid, who still had his pike pointed at Nightbane. "You're a demon from Hell. Don't you like this kind of stuff?"

"He's got a point," said Shawn. "I would think somebody of your caliber would be happy that such an outbreak has happened."

Nightbane smiled. Or it appeared to be a smile. "Normally, I would. But if something like this ever did happen, I want it to be my hands. So that's why I want to stop it."

Dave nodded his head in agreement. "Likewise."

"You two are creeping me out. But I see the reason for you're being here. As they say, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. I don't trust you, but I believe we could use your assistance. What's the plan?" said Shogou, finally lowering his weapon. The others followed suit, except Dugger, Shawn, Sven, and Steel.

"I hope you know that you're weapons can't harm me. You might as well put them down." said Nightbane.

"I'll be the judge of that." said Dugger, who continued to point his M-240 at Nightbane. Steel, Shawn, and Sven nodded their agreement. "But that aside, how can we stop this outbreak."

Yuki, who was quiet during the whole conversation, finally spoke up. "It has to be shut down at the source. The source is located at a military base on the outskirts of Japan. I have the coordinates."

"That's where the portal is, and that is where the outbreak started, and that is where this will all end." said Dave.

"That's all good and dandy, but just how do you expect us to get all the way to Japan? It's not like we can just walk there. Not with all the undead walking around and stuff." said Ashley.

At this, Kanade, Meiko, and Shogou smiled.

"We fly." said Meiko, still smiling.

"I can call in our choppers. They'll take us the the ship that we have stationed off shore. From there we'll refuel and begin our assault." said Shogou.

"Sounds like a plan. All in agreement?" said Dugger.

The group nodded.

"Alright then, let's get prepped to move out. Gather what supplies. I don't think we'll be coming back anytime soon." If at all, thought Dugger to himself.

The group began making preparations to leave the safe house.

"I don't trust you. I'll keep an eye on you," said Dugger to Nightbane. The rest of the group had went down stairs to select their weapons for their journey. Nightbane shrugged and stood in the living room, waiting on the others.

Meanwhile, down in the armory, the group were having a field day. They stared in amazement at rows of weapons on the walls.

"Oh yeah!" shouted Meiko. She walked up and down the wall taking pistols and attaching them to her assault harness. The others, such as Ashley and Shawn, wanted bigger weapons. Ashley eyes a SPAZ-12 shotgun on the wall. Shawn nodded his approval. She took it down and loaded in a shell. She pumped it once. She grinned. "I think I'll be taking this and this." She grabbed a sub-machine gun off the wall. She walked out of the armory happily and went to go wait up stairs. Kanade on the other hand, was being more strategic with her selections. Due to her previous combat experience, she knew what exactly she wanted. She selected a compact assault rifle and a fully automatic pistol. She also took a large knife off. Satisfied, she walked back up stairs. Shawn took a few pistols and got some more ammo for his M-16. Storm picked up a sub-machine gun and some more knives. Yuki picked a bolt action sniper rifle off of the wall to replace the one that she had lost earlier and a combat knife. Dave selected a compact grenade launcher and a assault rifle to compliment his sword. Done selecting their weapons, they returned up stairs. Shogou, Steel, and Khalid, and Kyon had already selected their weapons earlier so they were good to go.

"Got everything y'all need?" asked Dugger.

The group nodded that they were ready to go. Outside the sound of chopper blades swishing the air could be heard.

"Sounds like our ride's here." said Shogou.

"Let's do this!" said Kyon hoisting his heavy sniper rifle proudly.

"Alright everyone, load up." said Dugger. He opened the door and saw the two Black Knight choppers awaiting the group. "Me, Storm, Sven, Shawn, Khalid, and Kanade in the first chopper. Dave, Meiko, Shogou, Yuki, Ashley, and Kyon in the second one." They began to board. Before Storm entered the chopper, she stopped to ask Dugger a question.

"What about that thing over there?" she said tilting her head toward Nightbane.

"I'll deal with him. Get on board." said Dugger. She nodded and got in the chopper. Dugger approached Nightbane.

"You can fly, right?" Dugger asked.

"Of course." said Nightbane.

Moving out

"Good, you'll be leading the way. Don't want anything funny to happen."

"What, you don't trust me?"

"Of course not," replied Dugger. "You should be glad I haven't killed you yet. Like I said earlier, I'll be watching you." He handed him a comlink and showed him how it worked. "See you in the air." said Dugger.

Dugger boarded the first helicopter and gave the signal to go. His chopper rose first followed by the second. Dugger leaned out and looked at Nightbane. He keyed his mic. "Time to go." On his mark, Nightbane unfolded his ebony wings and sprang in the air. Dugger keyed his mic again. "You first. Nightbane second. We'll follow." The pilot of the other chopper acknowledged the order and moved in front. Nightbane flew behind him. From the passenger's seat Dugger gave the order. "Let's ride."

The group proceeded out to sea, leaving the safe house behind and the ruins of the once prosperous city.


	6. Fight or Flight

"Damn, who knew what they had there?" said one of the Black Knight soldiers.

"I did." said Yuki who was watching the video monitors.

The guard just sighed.

The survivors from the American mainland had arrived on the ship hours earlier to find it in an uproar. Shogou had forwarded the information that Dave and Yuki had managed to retrieve from the facility. With that information in hand, the Black Knights had begun to search for the hidden military facility. They found it, but they weren't prepared for what they found there. The facility was overrun with the dead. The guards had all perished in the fighting, but yet, they still retained some of their former memories. The threat was getting stronger. The undead guards attacked the scouting force that had discovered the facility. They were wiped out when they landed. The last communication they received was filled with static, screams, gunfire, explosions, and some even said barks. The survivors landed just as the Vigilance received it's last transmission from the scouting force, which they named Recon One.

"Playback that video one more time, Captain." said Dugger. The Captain nodded and pressed play.

Due to the degree of damage suffered to the equipment when the solider died, the video and sound quality of the recording was degraded, but the crew on board the Vigilance and the survivors tried to decipher what they could.

The video comes online.

-1400: Recon One can be seen landing in the mountains from the helmet camera of one of the solders. The two helicopters unload their passengers. Twenty soldiers disembark and began to scout the area.

-1447: "I think this is the place, Sarge." said Private Jenkins, the owner of the helmet camera.

"Place the charge." said Sergent Robinson.

The private places the charge on a door in what appears to be an abandoned research facility in the mountains. The soldiers back up and the charge goes off, blowing the door inwards. They enter the darkened building. Warning sirens light the walls and in the dim light, the floor is covered in blood and dead bodies of scientists and guards. Many had large gashes on their bodies and others were ripped limb from limb.

The sound of vomiting from some of the soldiers could be heard.

"Cut that out," said the Sergent. "We've seen worse than this before". He didn't sound so sure of himself. "Alpha will explore this section of the facility. Bravo will check out the other sector. Move." he said.

The two squads move out. The tape ends here and picks up at another time stamp.

-1517: Explosions could be heard along with heavy gunfire and the screams of dying men. "Fall back! Fall back!" yelled some one. "There's too many of them!" yelled another. There was one particular explosion that knocked the camera off line.

-1625: The group can be seen running through a long hall way. There were only four people left in his squad. One of his squad mates was bleeding profusely from a large gash in his leg.

"Fire, fire!" yelled one of the soldiers. The captain on the ship confirmed it to be Specialist Lyle.

While running, Jenkins turned around and fired his assault rifle behind him. Through the camera as Jenkins turned his head, a large group of figures could be seen rapidly gaining on the fleeing soldiers. Jenkins's rounds impacted the lead figure, and caused him to trip up. The figure fell down but the rest of the pursuers just jumped over him and continued pursuit. A loud roar is heard and the video ends there.

Pvt. Jenkins

-1820: Jenkins is alone with one other solider. He has his arm around the other solider and is helping him walk. Jenkins has a severe limp, and the other solider is covered in blood.

"Maybe we should call for extract." said Jenkins weakly.

"They're all dead. I heard them die over the radio and I saw my own squad ripped to shreds in from of me." said the other. One of the crew members on the ship identified him as Lieutenant Smith.

"What should we do then?" said Jenkins.

"We fight." he said simply. "Put me down."

Jenkins laid him against the wall. "Give me my pistol." said Smith. Jenkins obliged and gave the Lieutenant his pistol. He cocked it. Moans could be heard in the distance.

"They'll be here soon. Better prepare yourself, boy."

Jenkins grimly nodded and shouldered his weapon.

The two were in a very dimly lit laboratory. The only thing giving off light was a strangely lit doorway. It looked as if it were a portal of some sort.

The moans began to grow louder, followed by the roars of something large and sinister.

Surrounded

The zombies appeared. Among them were the scientists, guards, and the recently killed recon soldiers. The two opened fire and for a moment, it looked as if they were going to be able to hold off until a large creature burst our from between the group of zombies. It appeared to be some type of large dog, but heavily decayed and wrapped in flames. It immediately jumped on the Lieutenant and put it's mouth around his neck. It snapped it's teeth shut and with a loud clang of it's massive jaws and a spray of blood, severed the Lieutenants head. It bit down on the remains of Smith's body and began to devour him. Jenkins gave a cry and began to run, but there was no where to go. He ran into the group of zombies, but due to what he just witnessed, he had reached the limits of his sanity, so he did not attempt to fight. The undead fell upon him and began to tear him to pieces. He screamed, but to no avail. The camera continued to roll after Jenkins had died, so it recorded the group of zombies feasting on his now dead flesh. Something off to the side of the camera moved and a moment later a large foot crushed Jenkins's head, destroying the camera.

The video ends.

Meiko gave a sob. "I knew those men. I fought by their side. For them to die like that, it's horrible." she said through tears. She ran out of the briefing room.

"Meiko, wait!" yelled Shogou. He ran out to go console her.

"That was terrible..." said Storm.

"They were torn to pieces... What a horrible way to die" said Ashley putting her hand on Storms shoulder. "Let's get some fresh air." The two walked out of the room together.

"Those were good soldiers, but no one deserves to die like that. It's not right. We need to put a end to this," said Kanade sitting in one of the briefing room's chairs.

"Agreed," said Dugger. "We need a plan of action before we just run in there. We see we are fighting more than just zombies now."

"What do you think should be done?" said the Captain. "I can't lend you anymore of my soldiers. They were our best. We still have the threat to the mainland that needs to be taken care of. We can fire one of our missiles to destroy the facility, that should do it."

"No." said Nightbane stepping out of the shadow. Two armed guards were beside him.

"Why not?" said the Captain.

"Because the portal cannot be close by such means, and that is the cause of all of our problem. We have to go there and manually shut it down." replied Nightbane.

Yuki nodded in agreement.

"Destroying the facility would cause further contamination. Despite it being contained on an island, an explosion could cause an airborne leak of the virus."

The others nodded their agreement.

"Right. We have to do this the old fashioned way. We fight our way though the facility and shut down the facility at it's source. But despite the video recording from Recon One, we still don't know the magnitude of the facility, so we'll be going in essentially blind." said Dugger.

"Wait," said one of the Vigilance's crew members. I'm still picking up the IFF tag from one of the Recon team members. You can use that as a reference point.

"We can use that to sort of find our way around, right?" said Khalid.

"Yeah, that should help us out a bit," said Sven

"Any help is appreciated," said Shawn.

"Indeed. It is better than going in blind," replied Dave.

"So when do we leave?" said Steel.

"The choppers are loaded and we have the coordinates. Whenever we want, I suppose."

"Let's do this," said Kyon, getting to his feet.

"You guys, go talk with the others and go bring them back here. We need to discuss our final plans."

Sven nodded. The group left to go find Meiko, Storm, Shogou, and Ashley. Meanwhile Nightbane and Dugger stayed behind to talk with the Captain.

"I'm not sure how this mission is going to go, or if we will make it out at all. That's why I want some insurance. If we don't make it out the facility and don't report back for at least two hours, I want you to drop a MOAB on the island. The flames should kill off any type of virus and disrupt that portal."

"I can't just do that. Do you realize the repercussions that could cause?"

"No!" yelled Nightbane.

"Something wrong?" said Dugger.

"The portal cannot be destroyed so easily. It is already unstable as it is. If you destroy the gateway keeping the portal intact, it could cause the leak to expand even wider. That would cause a literal hell on earth. That would tear the fabric of reality. I can't allow you to do that. Not yet.

"What do you mean,'not yet?'"

"My plans are not finished yet. I can't have you interrupting my plans." replied Nightbane darkly. He stared at Dugger fiercely.

"Restrain him!" yelled the Captain.

"The two guards reacted quickly, but Nightbane was quicker. Before the two guards on his flanks had time to draw their weapons, Nightbane had already broken the neck of one guard by snapping his neck with one clawed hand and he thrust his other arm into guts of the other guard and disemboweled him. By this time Dugger had already drawn his blade and dived into the fray. But by the time that Dugger had reached Nightbane from across the room, he had flown over behind the Captain, who drew his pistol and fired at Nightbane. The bullets hit him, but simply faded into his body. Nightbane grabbed his neck and with a powerful thrust ripped his head with his spine still attached from his body. The Captain's body fell to the ground like a de-boned fish. Dugger leaped through the air and engaged in combat with Nightbane. Nightbane had summoned his swords from somewhere and parried his attacks. Dugger attacked viciously, but Nightbane parried with ease.

"You haven't seen nothing yet!" grunted Dugger who kicked at Nightbane.

Nightbane took the kick in the chest and flew back, denting the wall. He immediately sprang back and began attacking Dugger. He landed blow after blow on Dugger, who blocked each attack, but his energy was draining. Nightbane on the other hand, showed no sign of tiring. He spun and cut, and blocked, and slashed. One of his cuts managed to graze the legs of Dugger and he flinched ever so slightly. Nightbane saw the opening and back handed Dugger. Dugger saw the attack coming but had no time to block. He steeled himself. He was lifted off his feet and slammed against the wall. Nightbane moved in for the kill and Dugger struggled to get back up. At that moment, the doors burst open and in came Steel. He was firing with his dual pistols. The shots hit Nightbane and he grunted. He turned around, only to meet face to face with Steel. He already had his sword drawn and with a roar, slashed out at Nightbane. Nightbane parried his attack, but was pushed back.

"I knew you would reveal yourself." said Nightban.

"You know nothing!" yelled Steel, who yelled viciously at him.

The two exchanged powerful blows. The blows were so powerful that shock-waves could be seen in the air. Steel fought as one possessed. His eyes glowed bright red. Nightbane was beginning to wear down. Steel sensing the moment pressed his attack, but Nightbane flashed one of his wings and knocked Steel over. He took the opportunity the escape out the door. Steel ran to pursue, followed by Dugger who had recovered. The others were on the flight deck watching as Nightbane flew out to sea.

"Yuki!" yelled Dugger.

She nodded and loaded her rifle with incendiary rounds. Nightbane was shrinking in the distance, but it didn't matter to Yuki. She aimed with the rifle, talking to herself in quiet rapid tones. With her bolt action rifle, she fired two shots almost simultaneously. Each round hit each of Nightbanes wings, setting them aflame. Nightbane staggered. His wings burned down to nothing and he crashed on the island.

"Nice shot, Yuki!" said Kyon patting her on her shoulder.

She nodded.

Dugger reached Yuki and looked out to see where Nightbane was last seen.

"It looks like we're going hunting." said Dugger


	7. Decent Into Darkness

"Do you think that killed him?" asked Sven.

"No. It will take a hell of a lot more to kill a creature such as him, and I do mean a hell of a lot." replied Steel, looking out to sea where the group had last seen Nightbane fall from the sky.

"First thing first, we have to find out who's going to command this ship." said Dugger, reminding the group of the demise of the Captain.

"No need," said a figure walking across the flight deck. On his uniform he bore the rank of Commander. "I am Commander Mark. The death of the Captain was tragic, but we will not allow his death to be in vain. He knew his duty. I will command this vessel. The important thing is to get over to that island and shut down that dammed portal."

"I will stay behind," said Shogou stepping forward. "These are my people and the threat in Japan has not been fully vanquished yet. I will provide what assistance I can from here and also see what I can do for the people in my country. I long to fight by your sides, but I believe I can accomplish more from here than being on the ground. I wish you all the best of luck."

The group nodded their assent. "I understand man, you gotta do what you gotta do. Just don't get too lazy back here." said Dugger laughing.

"Never. Just try and save some for me. On the other hand, kill them all." replied Shogou with a smile.

"You know me, man." Dugger grasped Shogou's arm and gave him a firm hand shake.

"Give 'em hell." said Shogou.

Meiko said nothing, but ran up to Shogou and gave him a hug. She released him and punched him in the shoulder.

"Ow." said Shogou rubbing his shoulder. He smiled. "Do what you do best, Meiko."

She nodded and walked off to go stare off the edge of the flight deck.

The rest of the group said their goodbyes.

"Well then, one final thing." said Dugger as Shogou and the Commander went off to go plan their logistics. "This will be a hard fought battle. This will not be like the city. We will be facing creatures that are not from this world. You all saw the video. I will not blame any of you if you wish to stay behind." He looked around at the group.

"You know I'm up for a fight," said Kyon.

"The world is in ruins, there's no need to run. I will fight." replied Storm.

"I agree with Storm, I will fight for a better future." said Ashley nodding.

"Do you even need to ask me?" said Sven.

Dugger laughed.

"You heard my dog though," said Shawn with a smirk.

"It's my job to fight. Plus this is my homeland. Of course I will fight with you." said Kanade, who was busy checking her weapons.

"The flood cometh. And I will stand strong." replied Khalid, slamming his end of his pike down on the deck.

"Snow Wolves. Enough said." said Steel. His eyes burned brightly as he stared off at the distant island.

"Yes." replied Yuki.

"Death, destruction, and chaos. How can you expect me not to fight?" said Dave.

Meiko returned to the group. Resolve could be seen in her eyes. "You know I'm in," she said fiercely.

Dugger nodded. "I couldn't ask for a better team. Alright, everybody le-" He was cut off suddenly by the sound of approaching footsteps. Four figures ran up to the group.

"Sorry sir, but I couldn't stop these two. When they heard that there were survivors going out to fight, they bolted to the flight deck. We'll take them back." said one of the Black Knight soldiers.

"Wait. Let me hear them out." replied Dugger.

The figure on the right spoke up. "The name's Profit. You're going out. I'm coming." He had a darker complexion than Dugger. He wore the Black Knights assault uniform. On his back he had a battle axe and on his hips he wore two 9 millimeter pistols.

"And what makes you so sure that you are?" replied Dugger, looking over the newcomer.

"I'm tired of waiting on this ship. Everyone back from where I come is either dead or they have turned, which is just as good as being dead. I want to fight. There's nothing else left."

"I see. Very well, it's going to be a rough fight. I hope you're ready."

He nodded. "Bring it on."

Dugger smiled. "Introduce yourself to the rest of the group then. Now, what about you?" he said, asking the other person who ran out with Profit.

Profit went over to talk with the others while the second newcomer spoke up.

"The name's Hansell. I've been preparing for this day for the longest. When I first heard of the outbreak, I was already ready to go. I know that the worlds never going to be the same, but as for right now, I want to make a difference, and give humanity another fighting chance. I've taken down many zombies to get to this ship, and I too am tired of waiting around. Put me in the fight." He also had the skin tone of Dugger. He was dressed in regular clothes, but he was armed to the teeth with knives, grenades, pistols, and ammunition. He also had an katana on his back.

"No need to say more. I was the same way. Welcome to the group." Dugger nodded to the others. "Make yourself at home."

Hansell went off to begin his introductions. By this time Shogou and Commander Mark had returned to the flight deck to see the group off.

"So what's your plan?" asked Shogou.

"Ultimately it is to shut down that portal. While we're in there, I'm hoping we can find a cure of some sort, but if not, I'll be happy with just shutting down that device. That will stop the souls or whatever it is that's coming out of the portal from coming into this world. And I can't forget about the threat that Nightbane poses. We can't let him gain control of the zombies. He'll rip open the portal and use it for his own means. We must stop him at all cost. It will be a hard battle, but one that must be fought. There is no other option. That aside, how is the delivery of the MOAB coming?"

He looked away for a second. "It's ready to go." He handed Dugger a device. "Press that button when all hope is lost. We'll strike the area. Hopefully it will shut down the device. Use that only if there is no other option."

Dugger put the device in one of his chest pockets. He nodded. "I understand. We'll be off now. We have the last known location of where we lost the other choppers locked in. We'll start our search there."

Shogou put his hand on Dugger's shoulder. "The best of luck to you. We're all counting on you. Try not and die."

"You too, old buddy," said Dugger with a smile. And with that he turned back to board his chopper. Both choppers were already loaded up with their rotors rotating. They all had returned to the choppers that they had returned in, with the exception that Profit was in Dugger's chopper and the Hansell was in Kanade's chopper, as she had took over for Shogou's position. They were just waiting for clearance from the ship's control tower to take off.

Dugger went and secured the doors to the second chopper. He gave them the thumbs up sign and ran off to his own chopper to do the same. He climbed into the forward passenger seat and put on his head set. He looked out the window and saw the some of the flight crew on the deck salute the chopper. He returned it. A voice in his headset spoke up.

"Black Knight Assault Force One and Two, you are clear for takeoff. Give 'em hell." said the aircraft controller in the tower.

Taking Off

"Acknowledged tower," replied Dugger. He nodded to the pilot. "Let's do this." The pilot put the chopper into gear and rose from the flight deck. They began their journey to the island.

The two choppers reached the island at nightfall. It was heavily forested with a beach surrounding it. It couldn't have been more than 10 miles wide. Using the spotlights on the chopper, the group searched the area from the air. They soon came upon a large gash in the forest. The ground and the tress were shattered. It was where Nightbane had fallen from the sky. When they came upon the end of the wrecked forest, there was no body.

"Well that's not unexpected," said Dugger, speaking into his headset. "He's here somewhere, probably waiting for us."

"Yeah, we're ready for him." commented Steel, also speaking into his head set.

"Alright, pilot, take us to those coordinates," said Dugger.

"Yes, sir." The pilot turned the helicopter to begin heading towards the location when a loud buzzing sound was heard.

"Missile lock!" he yelled out.

"Evasive maneuvers!" yelled Dugger in response. The pilot didn't respond. He was too busy trying to break the missile lock. "We've got a lock too!" yelled BK Two.

"Damn! Everybody, strap yourselves in, this is going to be rough!" shouted Dugger over the channel. He looked back into the cargo hold. Every one already had their straps fastened. Some looked queasy and others were grinning. "Hold on everybody!" he told them. He turned back to the pilot. Sweat was streaming down his face. Outside the window bright flashes could be seen where the missiles and anti-air fired missed the chopper. The flashes light the sky up. "You good, man?"

The pilot stared straight ahead. "Yeah," he said though clenched teeth. His hands gripped the control yolks tightly. He yanked one of the sticks left, and sent the chopper into a steep turn. Off to the right of the helicopter, a missile that the pilot barely dodged flew up. "Close one," said the pilot. "Yeah" replied Dugger.

Something flashed past the helicopter. It wasn't a missile. "What was that?" asked Dugger. One of the group members from the back spoke up, it was Storm.

"It's some type of creature. They rose up from the forest. I think there's a battle going down there." she said.

Meiko spoke up from the other helicopter. "She's right. I can see gunfire down in the forest, it looks like somebody beat us here. Those missiles aren't just aimed at us, it's aimed at them too."

Air Ambush

"Get on the machine guns!" yelled Dugger. The sound of the chopper doors could be heard opening. A moment later the machine guns could be heard firing. Tracers streamed out the doors.

"Who's on the guns?" asked Dugger and Kanade at the same time.

"Me," answered Storm.

"I've got the other one," said Shawn.

"Kyon and Meiko are on ours" said Kanade from BK Two.

"Just cause I don't have a turret don't mean I can't fight." replied Hansell also in BK Two. He had braced himself between the doors and started to fire at the creatures with his assault rifle at the same time that Kyon had opened up with his machine gun.

"Light 'em up!" yelled Ashley.

"That's one down!" shouted Shawn.

"That's another," yelled Storm.

"Scratch one bogey," said Kyon happily.

"He's down." replied Shawn.

Taking Fire

One of the creatures had flown into the open hatch of BK Two. "And where do you think you're going?" yelled Hansell over the roar of the machine guns. The creature flapped it's wings and opened it's mouth to reveal multiple sets of razor sharp teeth. The rest of the crew in BK Two were strapped in so they could not fight the creature. It was up to Hansell.

The creature lunged at Hansell, but he dodged wiping out his katana at the same time. The creature called Slyther turned around and attacked again, this time biting down on the blade of Hansell's sword. Hansell twisted the blade and it shattered in the creatures mouth.

"Damn!" yelled Hansell. 'That was my good sword!" Disregarding that his blade had been broken, Hansell shoved the remains of his blade through the back of the creature's head. The creature clamped down on Hansell's arm and he grunted in pain. "Oh no you don't!" he roared. With his other arm he upholstered his pistol and fired a full clip into the creature. The creature flinched and released the grip on Hansell's arm. Seeing that the creature was weak, Hansell spun around and kicked the creature out of the hatch.

"You alright, man?" asked Kyon who had let up on his fire for a moment to check on Hansell.

Clutching his wounded arm, "I've seen better days." replied Hansell through gritted teeth.

"You did good, now strap yourself in. This might get bumpy," said Meiko, who didn't even turn around as she was busy engaging the flying creatures.

"Yeah," replied Hansell who had returned to his seat. Kanade had came from the front and went to go check on Hansell's wounds.

The tracer fire continued to stream from the two choppers, gunning down the strange flying creatures that tried to attack the helicopters. All the while the two pilots continued to perform evasive maneuvers.

"Anybody know what those things are?" asked Dugger.

"Slythers," replied Yuki from BK Two. "Mutated birds. It is unknown if they are of this world or not."

"Well whatever they are, they're not taking us down." said Dave, observing the fight from his seat in BK Two.

Suddenly a cry came over from the radio channel.

"We're hit! BK Two is hit! I repeat BK Two is going down!" screamed the other pilot. "Brace for impact!" yelled Kanade from BK Two.

Dugger looked out the right windshield. The other chopper's tail rotor was wrapped in flames and it was spinning out of control. It dipped down and was soon out of sight. The creatures followed the helicopter down. Dugger yelled into his mic. "BK Two respond!" No response. "BK Two, come in!" Still no response. "Damn it!"

A voice came over the speaker. It was Sven from the cargo bay of BK One. "I heard all of that over the radio. Do you think they made it?"

"I don't know. We can only hope for the best." replied Dugger grimly.

"We're here." said the pilot. They had successfully managed to make it past the anti-air fire. The creatures that were following their chopper had flown off and went to follow BK Two. The pilot's spotlight was shining on the ground. Below their chopper were two other Black Knight helicopters. The markings on their tails told them that they were the choppers that Recon One had flown in on.

"Right. Take us down." said Dugger to the pilot.

The chopper descended to the ground beside the two Recon One helicopters, but before it could reach the ground, gunfire began to erupt from the woods.

"Open up with the machine guns!" ordered Dugger.

Shawn and Storm begin pouring gunfire into the surrounding forest.

The helicopter touched the ground.

"Covering fire! Everybody out. Take cover behind the Recon One choppers!" shouted Sven over the roar of his machine gun. The group rushed out of the chopper hatches and assumed their positions. They immediately opened fire on the unseen enemies. Meanwhile, Dugger and the pilot, who's name was Samuel, also got out. They ran over to the chopper nearest to the right. The pilot pulled out his side arm and began firing.

"Who are these guys?" yelled Sven as he pumped round after round with his sniper rifle into the woods.

"Use you night vision sights." said Dugger who was also busy firing into the woods.

Hot LZ.

Sven flicked the switched and activated his night vision. The world turned eerily green but all became clear as daylight. Through his sights he could see multiple enemies in the woods. The bright flashes from their weapons were like mini explosions. He fired on one and watched the bullet pass through him and out his back. He watched him fall. He gasped.

"Specters!" he yelled.

"I should have known. Oh well, they're in our way, so they'll die too. Keep up the fire!" replied Dugger, who continued to fire on the Specters in the woods.

The machine gun fire from the choppers died down. Dugger looked back. Storm and Shawn were off their guns and fighting unseen enemies. Their blades clashed in the air and created cascades of sparks.

"Damn it, they still have their cloaking devices. Steel, on me!" he yelled.

Steel broke off on his attack and went and crouched beside Dugger. "What's up?" he asked.

"Shawn and Storm are in trouble. I know you can see cloaked enemies. We need to help those two out."

"I got you, let's go." said Steel.

"Covering fire!" yelled Dugger.

"Will do!" yelled Ashley.

"We got you, just don't get shot in your butt!" added in Profit. The others responded by increasing their gunfire.

"Let's do it!" said Dugger, and with that him and Steel rushed back to go help out Shawn and Storm, all the while dodging bullets from the Specters behind them.

They reached the two in seconds. They pulled out their bladed weapons and immediately jumped into the fray.

"What took you so long?" asked Shawn, who swung his blade and it clashed with another unseen blade.

"Who cares, at least they came to help us out." said Storm, who had out her twin daggers and was slashing and blocking viciously.

"Right." said Dugger. He kicked out and it connected with one unseen enemy. It caused his suit to malfunction. The hologram projector flickered and died out. He paused at his sudden vulnerability, and Dugger took that slight hesitation to his advantage. He lashed out with one of his long knives and severed the Specter's head. The Specter fell to the ground with a thud.

"Three more," replied Steel, who's eyes glowed red. He could see the Specters clearly.

"Awesome." said Shawn. He swung low with his sword, but feinted to the back and kicked high. His kick connected with the Specter, which caused his suit to flicker and died out also. Shawn reversed the grip on his sword and ran it through the Specter's chest. The Specter grunted, but kicked back at Shawn, which caused him to back out and bring his sword out of the Specter. The Specter continued his attack. Storm, who saw that Shawn's Specter's back was unprotected, spun around with her daggers. One dagger blocked an unseen attack from her Specter, but with her other dagger, she jammed it in the Spine of Shawn's Specter. He staggered and Shawn saw the opening in his defenses. He leap up, and swung down with his katana. He cleaved the Specter's head in two. As soon as he landed he engaged Storm's Specter.

"Two left." replied Steel.

"Not for long," said Dugger. "Alpha formation!" he yelled.

Steel went behind Dugger and the two begin to spin. Their blades glinted deadly. Shawn and Storm jumped back.

"Right!" shouted Steel. The two moved in unison. Steel's sword connected with something and a fountain of blood erupted as one of the Specters fell to the ground in two halves.

"He's running!" yelled Steel.

"Oh no he's not!" replied Storm pulling out one of her throwing knives. "Where is he?"

"Northeast and to your left!" said Steel. Storm immediately turned and let her blade fly lose. It connected with something. The Specter's suit that it hit malfunctioned. He stopped in his tracks. The blade was sticking out of the back of his head.

"Nice throw." said Shawn complimenting Storm.

"Got that right." said Dugger glancing back at the others. Some of the Specters had breached through the defense line since the fire from the machines gun died down. Khalid was engaged with three Specters by himself. Ashley was fighting with two. Profit was still firing on Specters in the woods with Sven backing him up with his sniper rifle.

"Let's get over there." said Steel.

"Right behind you," replied Storm. The four rushed over to assist their friends.

Meanwhile, in another neck of the woods, the group who was in BK Two which crashed were having their own problems.

"Huh? Where am I?" said Kanade groggily. She looked around here. The windshield was shattered, and blood was every where. She was cut in multiple places. Beside her lay the pilot. He was covered in his own blood. A large spine of some sort had pierced through his chest. Kanade checked his pulse, but she already knew it was to no avail. He was dead. She pulled out knife and cut herself out of her flight harness. She climbed back to go check on the passengers. She heard gun fire and looked out the back. The rear of the chopper was wrecked, but it was some what intact. Meiko and Kyon were limp in their straps. She looked outside the chopper and saw Hansell, Dave, and Yuki firing on something. She couldn't help them out right now so she and went to go check on Meiko and Kyon. She check both of their pulses. They were still alive, just knocked out by the crash. "Thank goodness. But I have to get the out of here. I smell fuel." She took out her knife and cut Meiko down first, followed by Kyon. She dragged them out of the helicopter and to a tree. When she had dropped them off she went to go join the others fight. The creatures that had followed them down when they crashed were swarming around above them. The survivors held them at bay. But there were also flashes of light coming from the forest.

"What's the situation?" asked Kanade, while pulling out her rifle and firing on the creatures swarming over head.

"The Specters are back. But they have their own problems to handle. These things aren't very picky who they attack, but we've been holding them off for a bit." Before we crashed, I saw a large building. I think that is where we lost contact with Recon One. That must be where BK One landed since I didn't see them get hit." replied Dave who was keeping up a steady volume of gunfire.

"How far do you think it is?" asked Kanade.

"Two point three miles southeast," replied Yuki, who picked off the flying creatures with deadly accuracy.

"We should move," said Hansell. He had ripped one of the machine guns off it's mount in the helicopter and was pouring bullets into the creatures which Yuki had named Slythers. Despite his injuries from the air ambush, he seemed to be holding strong.

"I agree with him." said Dave. "The fire from the Specters in the woods has stopped. It's beginning to worry me."

"True. Alright, everybody get ready to move out. Dave, go pick up Kyon. Hansell, you get Meiko."

"Got ya." replied Hansell. He went over to pick up Meiko, but suddenly she awoke and slapped his hand out of the way. She got up slowly and held her hand on her stomach. Kanade ran over to her.

"Are you alright?" asked Kanade. "Your wounds still haven't healed from your last battle."

"I'm not dead yet." grunted Meiko. She pulled out her sub-machine gun and took off the safety with a click. "Point me to the bad guys."

"Just look around you!" yelled Dave who had just finished picking up the unconscious Kyon.

Meiko did as such. "Oh. Well that simplifies things." She fired a burst behind Kanade and one of the Slythers fell to the ground just a few feet from her.

"Nice shot." remarked Hansell. He continued to fire.

"No time for waiting around. Let's move. Yuki, lead the way." said Kanade.

"Yes," replied Yuki, as she shot down another Slyther with a well placed shot.

The group moved off into the woods, following Yuki's lead, firing the entire time.

Back at BK One's landing site, the fight was still raging on.

By now, the Specters had fully breached their perimeter. Everybody was engaged in hand to hand combat. The Specters who they were fighting did not have their cloaking devices equipped, which made it easier for the survivors.

"Will they stop ever stop coming?" asked Storm. She was fighting three Specters at one time. Her knives were weaving a deadly dance through the air. At least six other slain Specters laid at her feet.

"I know, right," replied Ashley, as she jacked another round into her shotgun. She fired a round into a Specter. He attempted to block the pellets with his sword, but failed to block them all. He fell to the ground as another one ran up.

"How you holding up over there, man?" asked Shawn. He was engaged with two Specters. He cut and slashed every which way with his katana. The two Specters tried to pierce his defenses, but couldn't.

"You know me, man," replied Sven. He hadn't drawn his katana yet. He was wielding his sniper like a club. Parrying attacks and knocking out any Specter who tired to run up on him. He caught one by surprise by thrusting forward with his rifle. The barrel of his rifle went through the chest of one Specter and out his back. Sven pulled the trigger and killed two more who were running towards Khalid.

"Thanks man!" yelled Khalid. He swung with his pike mightily and beheaded two Specters who didn't have the strength to block the attack. He spun his pike and engaged with another Specter.

"Watch where you're swing that thing!" commented Dugger, as he shot at one Specter with his sub-machine gun and slashed at another one with his knife. The Specter he shot at fell down and another one ran up. Dugger reversed the grip on his knife and punched at him, knocking him off his feet, he reversed his grip again and sent the knife flying into the neck of another Specter. He immediately grabbed another knife and engaged with another Specter. He observed a Specter leaping out the air towards Profit. "You got one incoming!" yelled Dugger.

Profit looked around and spied the incoming Specter. He shot it out of the air with one of his pistols and turned around and shot at another one that was behind him. One Specter slashed viciously at him, but he managed to get one of his pistols up in time to block it. Sparks flew as the two steel objects collided. The pistol flew out of his hand. Unfazed he turned his body and shot at the Specter with his other pistol. The Specter collapsed to the ground and another one immediately jumped up to take his place. He pulled the trigger but the gun clicked on empty. He tossed the gun at the Specter but he blocked it. Profit pulled his axe from his back and parried the next attack from the Specter, when suddenly, a bolt of black lighting flashed within the middle of the group. Everybody disengaged from their attacks and stepped back and observed the now burning ground. But the fire was not natural. It was black. Loud howling could be heard. All of a sudden some sort of dog like creature leapt out of the flames and ran at the first thing it saw. A Specter.

The creature was wrapped in burning flames. Its flesh was decayed and blacked. It's eyes were deep scarlet. It roar caused the woods to tremble at it's terrible voice. These were the Hellhounds that assisted in annihilating Recon One.

The beast bounded over towards the Specter. He slashed at it, but the Hellhound just shrugged off the attack. The creature leapt on the the Specter's chest knocking it over. It ripped out his throat in a spray of blood. The dog immediately turned from it's current victim and went to search for somebody else to kill. From the center of the ebony flames came more beasts. They swarmed over the area, attacking everyone in sight.

"What are those things?" yelled Storm as she turned to face the incoming threat.

"Hellhounds!" replied Dugger. He turned disengaged from the Specter who he was fighting. An unspoken truce had formed between the two groups. The Hellhounds were the biggest threat now.

Hellhounds.

Ashley, who had disengaged from her Specter took aim at one of the Hellhounds that was running at her. She squeezed the trigger on her shotgun. It clicked empty. She frantically searched for more shells on her person but came up empty. "Damn!" she yelled. The Hellhound leapt at her. In desperation Ashley pulled out her cleaver and threw it at the beast. The cleaver connected cleanly with the Hellhound and it buried itself in it's head. The Hellhound was unphased. It landed on Ashley's chest. She reached out and tried to push it off all the while the Hellhound snapped viciously at her. "Help!" screamed Ashley. Storm, who was busy fighting off her own Hellhounds turned and say Ashley. "No!" she yelled as she fired a burst at the Hellhound pinning Ashley to the ground, but it was to no avail. The rounds impacted the beast but had no effect. Ashley's strength was fading away and the Hellhound soon overwhelmed her. The Hellhound sank it's teeth into Ashley's stomach and ripped flesh and organs from her as she screamed. "Ashley!" yelled Storm, but there was nothing she could do. She turned around and continued to engage with the Hellhounds nearest her. "It wouldn't do me any good to get killed too." she thought to herself as she shot at an incoming Hellhound. The screams from Ashley died down and soon faded away into the chaos in the woods.

Soon a voice cried out, causing the Hellhounds to stop their hunt. Searing flames shot out from the ground. A figure walked through the flames. He was also wrapped in burning flames. Beside him were two particularly vicious Hellhounds. His neck looked like it had been broken previously, but some how reset into position. His flesh was decayed and burnt like the Hellhounds beside him.

His voice was deep and unnatural as he spoke. "You!" he yelled out as he pointed at Dugger.

"Uruz?" asked Dugger as he looked at the figure. The creature nodded. "But we killed you. I made sure of it!"

"Obviously not well enough," said the undead Uruz.

The Return of Uruz.

"Let's finish this!" yelled Steel. He didn't even hesitate to ask questions, he immediately jumped up and attempted to engage with the Uruz, but he was repulsed by an unseen force. His eyes flashed dark crimson as he crashed with the unseen force. He yelled out and fought against it.

From a great distance, a sinister laugh could be heard. It was oddly familiar.

Steel continued to fight. Eventually he pushed through the barrier and the voice that laughed cried out as if it had been attacked directly.

When the two blades struck each other the very ground trembled. A crater formed beneath the two.

Steel looked back, his eyes ablaze with a dark flame. He spoke with a voice not entirely his own. Go! Stop Nightbane! he yelled out as he continued to clash blades with Uruz.

Dugger nodded. "Everybody, let's go. Into the building!" He ran off and the others followed him. All but one. Profit stood where he was. His axe was dripping with blood from the Specters and Hellhounds that he had killed. Something didn't look right about him. There was a strange look in his eyes and he smiled darkly. "No," he said quietly." I can't do this anymore... No more running... The screams... I can still hear them... Blood everywhere... Blood everywhere! You all must die!"

"Profit! No!" yelled Storm. She tried to run back and get him. Dugger stopped her by grabbing her shoulder. "He's lost it." he said sadly. "Not everybody can handle this much stress. Let us go. Let him be." She looked back at Profit once more. He had ran out and engaged with two Hellhounds and 5 Specters. By the light of the unnatural flames, the Specters that they had been killed could be seen rising up. The undead Specters began shuffling towards Profit, and he was soon lost from sight. Blood sprays could be seen from where Profit attempted to fight them off, but soon even that began to fade as more and more undead Specters surrounded him. Meanwhile Uruz and Steel continued to clash fiercely. The sounds of their blades colliding echoed in the forest. "Let's go, Storm," said Dugger. She nodded and ran back with Dugger to catch up with the others.

"Wait, what about the pilot, Samuel?" asked Sven looking back.

Unbeknownst to the rest of the group, the pilot had fought bravely against the Specters, but he had received multiple gun shot wounds from the battle. He had leaned against a tree and with the remaining rounds in his fired at the Specters closing in on him. He killed two, but the rest of the Specters continued on relentlessly. Samuel unloaded his pistol and looked into his magazine. "One round left, huh? I always said I wanted to go out with a bang." he thought to himself. By that time he was surrounded by Specters. They looked at him, waiting for him to make a move. Samuel smiled and put the pistol to his head. "Bang." he said and aimed at the nearest Specters head and pulled the trigger, blowing out the Specter's brains. The other Specters reacted instantly. Five swords pierced the chest of Samuel and pinned him to the tree. Little did the Specters known that due to the wounds that he had received earlier, he had bled out and died before the Specters could strike.

"I haven't seen him in a while," replied Shawn.

"I don't think he made it," said Dugger. "But we don't have time to wait. We gotta go now. We don't know how long Steel can keep Uruz at bay. Let's move."

The group soon came upon a large structure in the woods. There was only one entrance, and the door leading inside had already been blown out.

"This must be the place where Recon One was lost at. Are y'all ready?" said Dugger looking back at the remaining survivors.

The group checked their weapons, loaded fresh magazines and nodded their consent. There was no need for words.

"Let's do this then." said Dugger.

And with that the group entered the building cautiously, not knowing what to expect.


	8. The Discovery

(Scene: BK Two's group)

"Keep running, damn it!" yelled Hansell.

"What do you think I'm doing?" replied Dave.

"Falling behind!" responded Kanade.

The BK Two survivors were fleeing through the woods, attempting to find out the fate of the BK One team. They were still being pursued by both the Specters and Slythers. Kyon was still unconscious and being carried by Dave. Hansell is beginning to feel the side effects of being bitten by the Slyther and the groups' ammunition is running low. Yuki is leading the group to where she believes the signal from the Recon One team is being transmitted.

"How much farther do we got?" asked Meiko. She turned behind her and fired at one of the Slythers that had swooped to close too her. It fell from the sky and tripped up some of the pursuing Specters.

Yuki was silent for a moment. "Something's wrong."

At that moment the forest light up with an unnatural light. A lighting bolt had struck the ground not too far from them. The woods began to burn with a black flame. They were surrounded by fire. The Specters were on the outside with the Slythers. Their gunfire could still be heard. The group was trapped.

The group stopped cold in their tracks and formed a circle out looking into the flames. Dave had layed Kyon in the center of the group to protect them and so he wouldn't be encumbered.

"Now what?" asked Kanade.

"Something approaches," replied Yuki hefting her rifle and staring down the sights. As she said that lighting flashed within the group and they all jumped back. Smoked filled the air. When it cleared a burning decayed beast stared at the group.

"What the fu-" said Hansell before he was cut off by multiple flashes of lighting. More of the beasts appeared.

"Hellhounds," said Dave. He calmly pulled out his broadsword and took up a fighting stance.

Yuki didn't say anything. Her response was to begin firing on the Hellhounds. On the other side of the flames it was apparent that the Specters were also in trouble. The sounds of their screams echoed in the woods.

"Fire!" yelled Kanade.

The group opened fire on the Hellhounds. Since the flames surrounded them, they didn't have much room to maneuver. The group all backed up to each others back. They concentrated their fire and began taking out the Hellhounds but no matter how many they took out more appeared.

"This is hopeless," panted Hansell. He was growing weary. He could feel his wounded arm decaying, yet he pressed on. He had ran out of ammo, so he tossed a grenade. "Frag out!" he yelled.

The grenade rolled out and one of the Hellhounds devoured it. It exploded, yet it appeared to have no effect.

"Impressive," noted Dave as he thrusted his broadsword into one Hellhound and shot at another one with his sub-machine gun.

"You can study them AFTER we get out of here," yelled Meiko as she engaged her own Hellhound with her katanas. She weaved a deadly dance with her blades trying to block the Hellhound, but every time she repulsed it, it hopped back for more.

The Hellhounds relentlessly pursue the survivors through the woods.

Somebody screamed out. It was Hansell. The Hellhound that he was fighting with his knife had penetrated his defenses and had bitten his bad arm.

"Damn it!" he yelled. Sensing his weakness the other Hellhounds disengaged and began to swarm around him. A loud clang rang out.

"Whoo! I'm back in the game!" yelled Kyon. He had finally awoken and had already bashed in the head of one of the Hellhounds with his frying pan. His sniper rifle was destroyed when the chopper crashed so all he had was his frying pan and his sawed off shotgun to fight. "So what's going on, guys?" he asked as he bashed in the head of another Hellhound.

"Just look around!" yelled Kanade as she shot at the Hellhounds approaching Hansell.

Kyon did as such. "Oh."

"We have to go now. The others are in trouble." said Yuki. She held a Hellhound up in the air by it's throat. With a squeeze of her hand, she crushed its throat and tossed it aside, knocking another Hellhound over with it.

"And just how are we going to do that?" asked Dave. Yuki nodded over to Hansell who had caught her eye.

"Hell... Freaking typical," sighed Hansell. "You guys go ahead, I got this." he replied as he tried to fight off the swarming Hellhounds. He ran off through the flames and the Hellhounds followed. The clothing that he wore was fire retardant so he was not effected by the flames.

"Hansell!" yelled Meiko attempting to run after him, but she was tackled to the ground by Kyon.

"He knew what he had to do, Meiko." said Kyon picking her up off the ground.

Once again Meiko slapped his hand away. She stormed over to Yuki. "How could you let him sacrifice himself like that? Haven't we lost enough people already?" Tears began to form in her eyes by she forced them down.

"He was turning," replied Yuki emotionlessly. "When the Slyther bit him, it was already over for him. It is better for him to die as he lived rather than running away from the inevitable.

Meiko turned away. She couldn't look at Yuki in the eye.

"This is all good and dandy, but there is still the issue of us being surrounded by these searing flames. It's a nice view, but I believe there are other pressing issues at the moment." said Dave looking around him.

Yuki began to say something very quiet and rapidly to herself. Nobody else could catch what she was saying. A few moments later it began to rain and the flames began to die down.

The group looked at Yuki. She looked back.

"What a coincidence, right Yuki?" asked Dave

Yuki didn't respond to his question. "We must continue." she said instead.

"She's right, let's go." said Kanade, and with that the group gathered themselves up and continued to press forward into the woods.

Meanwhile Hansell was fighting to hang on to the little life that he had left. He was running through the woods followed closely by the Hellhounds when suddenly he stopped. "Hasn't something like this happened before?" he thought to himself as he struggled to recall movies. He finally remembered the one. "Yep, that one." "You want my blood? Come take it!" he roared. He pulled out all the pins on the grenades he had on him and charged head first into the Hellhounds. He jumped into the air and the Hellhounds leaped up to meet him. Moments later a huge fire ball engulfed the area. Hansell and rest of the Hellhounds around him were gone.

Soon the BK Two crew came upon a large structure in the woods. There was only one door, but it was sealed shut.

"Yuki, is this the place?" asked Meiko.

"Not exactly, but it should take us to where we need to go." she replied.

"How are we going to get in there?" asked Kyon looking around for another entrance.

Dave had wandered off to look around. He found a vent on one of the walls. He walked back to group and told them to follow him. When they reached the vent they looked at it quizzically.

"A tight fit."

"In there? Isn't that kinda of a tight fit?" asked Kanade.

"Do you see any other entrances?" asked Dave.

"We don't have time for this, the others are probably in danger, we need to go now." said Kyon. With his pistol he shot off the bolts holding the vent in place and climbed in. He crawled in.

"Well?" he asked.

Kanade sighed. "Let's go."

And with that the group climbed into the vent and began to make their way into the facility.

Back at BK One's position, things were beginning to look grim.

"Just how many of these things are there?" asked Storm as she fired round after round into the zombies following them down the hallway.

"Considering the size of this place, I'd say a few hundred. Nothing we can't handle of course," said Dugger as he German Suplexed one zombie on its head and immediately roundhouse kicked two more off their feet. He caught back up with the group.

Recon One's remains

"This place is huge." remarked Sven. He sighted down his rifle and fired. Since they were going down a large corridor, there really was no need to aim, his round took out several zombies in a straight row.

The group had penetrated the facility and were searching the place room by room, looking for the IFF tag from the Recon One solider. The place was filled with undead scientists, guards, and other experiments that went amok when the power systems failed. Their ammunition was also running low, but with the goal in sight, the group remained postive about the situation.

"Hey, what's that ahead?" asked Khalid. His pike was dripping wet with blood.

"Looks like an elevator. Think it works?" asked Shawn.

"Only one way to find out." replied Dugger.

He went over to press the button and it lit up. The numbers flashed by, but at that moment a loud roar filled the air.

"What is this, Left 4 Dead?" thought Dugger to himself.

"Brace for an assault! The horde is coming! We have to hold out until the elevator reaches our floor. Take up defensive positions. Sven, you stand in the back as over watch. Khalid you got the front. Storm, Shawn, and I will defend the flanks. Hold fire until I say so," ordered Dugger. The group took up positions as the roar from the horde grew louder. Soon the first of the horde began to come into sight. It was being lead by a large mutated creature. It was not a regular zombie.

"What the hell is that?" asked Storm.

"A freaking Tyrant," replied Sven. "They just let everything out didn't they?"

Tyrant

"I wouldn't be surprised if we didn't start getting Lickers and Boomers around here..." replied Dugger. "Everybody else hold your positions. Me and Khalid will take this thing on. Open fire!"

As the survivors opened fire on the regular zombies, Dugger and Khalid ran forward to take the Tyrant out. Dugger knew that regular gunfire wouldn't affect the Tyrant and explosions were too dangerous to use in such an enclosed location.

Dugger jumped through the air and Khalid slid low. They both already drawn their weapons and brought them down on the Tyrant as gunfire from the other survivors rained down on the regular zombies.

The Tyrant turned his huge clawed hand and swiped at Dugger. Dugger ducked low and slashed at it's arm. He cut it deeply, but the wound regenerated. Meanwhile Khalid had gotten behind the Tyrant and began to engage the zombies around him to buy Dugger some space. He swung mightily and created a gap of redead corpses. He simply jumped on top of their bodies began to engage the others. At the same time Dugger continued to duel with the Tyrant. Dugger slashed and hacked at the Tyrant while avoiding it's mighty attacks, but none of the blows that Dugger managed to land seem to have any effect since they just kept regenerating.

"That's how you want to do it, huh?" said Dugger stabbing his knife into the Tyrant's head. The Tyrant reached up and grabbed Dugger around the waist with one clawed hand. Dugger flexed and tried mightily to break free, but the Tyrant's grasp was too strong, when suddenly the entire arm came off and fell to the ground with Dugger still in it's grasp. Sven had seen that Dugger was in trouble, so with some extremely well place shots, shot off the Tyrants arm. Dugger pulled the claws apart and saw the Tyrant in it's weakened state. The Tyrant was attempting to regenerate it's arm, but due to the extent of the damage inflicted, it would take some time. So Dugger pulled out one of his grenades and shoved it in the open wound of the Tyrant.

"Get down!" yelled Dugger. Khalid heard the shout but had no time to react, so with his pike he impaled one zombie and turned it around facing the Tyrant. It would be a meat shield. The grenade exploded, creating a pink mist that covered everybody. When all the bloody particles cleared up, the remainder of the other zombies had also went down with the explosion. Dugger went to go check on the others.

"A bloody mess."

"Whoo! What a blast!" said Sven admiring the dirty work.

"Ew." said Storm attempting to brush some of the gore off of her.

"That was awesome!" said Shawn, sheathing his bloody katana.

"Um... Where's Khalid?" asked Dugger looking around at the bloody mess.

Something started to move under a pile of zombie parts.

"Looks like one's still alive, I got it." said Shawn aiming at the movement.

"No!" yelled Dugger.

From beneath the gore rose a shape. It shook itself off. It was Khalid. "That was probably the most disturbing thing that I've ever experienced." He shuddered and with that shudder shook off some of the gore that plastered his body. "I'm going to need a long shower after this," he said. At that moment the doors to the elevator ding opened.

"What do you know." replied Dugger.

Sven laughed. "I know, right."

"Ladies first," said Khalid gesturing towards the door.

"How sweet," replied Storm sarcastically. She stepped into the elevator when the top of it burst down and a body fell on her. She screamed. The others ran to her.

Dugger checked the body. It was one of the Recon One soldiers. Not much remained to identify the body, but from the remains of it's neck Dugger saw that he still had his dog tags on.

Private Jenkins it read.

"Well, at least we know we are going to right way," replied Dugger placing the tags in his pocket. "Going down." He pressed the button and they descended into the depths.

The elevator finally reached the bottom of it's journey after what seemed like hours. The doors dinged open. They were in a huge carnivorous storage bay. The walls were lined with capsules filled with green liquid. Within them floated huge mutated creatures. Tyrants. At the very end of the storage there was a dark red light. It appeared to be a gate way of sorts. The group looked around. On the wall to the right there was a computer mainframe set up.

"That appears to be the portal!" exclaimed Storm.

The Portal

"Khalid, work your magic!" said Dugger.

"I'm on it." he replied and went over to the computer. He pressed a few keys when suddenly he felt something behind him.

"And just what do you think you're doing?" said a unnaturally voice.

"Yo-" Khalid was thrown across the room before he could even finish his statement.

"You've finally reached me. It took you long enough, although I wish you all would just die already." said Nightbane.

"This ends here, Nightbane!" yelled Dugger and Sven simultaneously.

"I think not." Nightbane gestured with his clawed hand and before him hundreds of zombies and creatures began to pour through the portal. "Prepare yourselves."

Dugger grinned, "Let's do this!"

The group dashed forward to engage with Nightbane and his minions. Dugger engaged with Nightbane directly and Shawn, Sven, and Storm began to fight with the creatures that he had summoned.

The elevator doors dinged open and gunfire erupted from it. Black Knight Two had joined the fight.

Yuki ignored the others and rushed over to the computer.

Kyon dashed forward and began swinging his frying pan like no tomorrow. "Together again!" he yelled.

Dugger who was busy fighting with Nightbane could not respond, he was focused solely on Nightbane.

Meiko leaped through the air and joined in the fray. She immediately assisted Dugger in his fight.

Kanade and Storm went back to back and started to pour fire into the zombies.

Sven and Shawn had pulled out their swords and were cutting large swaths through the zombies.

Dave once again went over to Yuki's side to cover her back.

"Is that all you've got?" said Nightbane easily parrying both Dugger's and Meiko's attacks with his broadsword. They didn't even reply, they just intensified their attack. They slashes and stabbed and cut and swung, but none of their attacks had any effect. They could not penetrate his defenses. Despite that, they fought on. Because they knew if they failed, the others would not be able to fight him off.

Over by the computer, Yuki was typing up a storm, trying to breach the system security systems. Dave was busy holding off the zombies that were trying to drag Yuki off the computer.

"How's it coming over there?" asked Dave. He slashed the head off of one zombie and kicked another through the chest.

"Not good." she replied. She continued to search through the system. She found something and began typing in a password. Rejected. She tried again. Rejected. She tried once more. Accepted. Security systems removed. Portal unstable. Restraints unleashed. Security off line.

Alarms began to blare. All of the Tyrants in the capsules lining the wall began to stir. They burst out of their containment chambers.

"Yuki!" yelled Dave. "What did you do?"

"This." replied Yuki. She entered in a long stream of characters. A symbol flashed on the computer. It flashed a few more times and then it shut down. The room went dark and all of the fighting died down. The computer spoke.

Black Onyx - Code Red Biological 2010_ Weapon Disposal Order 495... Unlocked.

The portal flashed and something passed through it. Nightbane roared.

"What have you done? You'll kill us all!"

A sinister laugh could be heard. It echoed though the room. It sent chills down every living spine in the room. Through the darkness strange multi-colored lights could be seen flying around...

"I've got a bad feeling about this," remarked Dave.


	9. Showdown

A bright crimson light flashed through the darkness briefly illuminating the room. It was a beam of some sort. It gave off a tremendous amount of energy. All of those around could feel it's power. When it ceased, the room was once again plunged into darkness. It began to rain.

"Rain?" asked Storm.

"Even better..." commented Dave.

Blood Rain

By now Khalid had recovered from his blow by Nightbane. "Why is it so dark? And why am I wet?" he asked himself. He stumbled along the wall, looking for a switch to turn on the lights. He slipped on something. "Huh? Whatever. I think I found the switch." He reached up and pulled a lever. The lights slowly flickered on. What Khalid saw made him gasp loudly.

The entire facility was coated in gore from the zombies that had filled the building only moments before the mysterious light had lit up the room. The gore extended all the way from the floor, to the walls, all the way up to the ceiling. In the air above the group floated a young girl. She was suspended in the air by wings which burst from her back, but they weren't your average feather wings. Instead of feathers each wing had several multicolored crystals which all glowed with a faint light. She wore a red dress and a white cap, both of which were covered in blood. Flandre ScarletHer hair was blond and she wore a ponytail on the side of her head. Her eyes were a deep scarlet red. She was smiling and that smile showed off her blood covered mouth and fanged teeth. She appeared to be no more than 11 or 12 years of age but something about her seemed timeless.

Nightbane seemed startled. He took a step backwards and pointed up at the girl. 'You!" he exclaimed loudly.

The girl's smile only broadened further showing off her bloody fanged teeth.

"I sealed you away ages ago! How did you manage to break free, Flandre Scarlet?" yelled Nightbane at the girl.

The girl named Flandre spoke up. She had a sweet sounding voice but something about it didn't seem quite... Sane.

"Flan doesn't know. One moment I was in the basement and now I'm here. I was quite bored. How about we play a game?" she asked.

"This is no time for games, girl! You being here could ruin everything," responded Nightbane fiercely.

"I want to play!" yelled Flandre. She was no longer smiling. Her eyes began to burn brightly.

"Damn you... I don't have time for this. I'll be sure to finish you off this time. And your dear sister won't be around to save you this time." He spoke an incantation and his sword responded. It began to burn with a dark flame, similar to the ones encountered by the survivors in the woods.

Flandre was smiling again. "Let's play!" she said happily. Her wings began to glow brightly. She clenched her right hand tightly and from it shot out a powerful beam of scarlet energy. It gathered together to form a burning spear that radiated with a bright light. She clenched her other hand and her power began to grow. All of those present in the room could feel the increase in power. The portal began to react to the rising power levels. It flashed and through it began to pour hundreds of zombies.

The Horde

The group tore their eyes away from Flandre and Nightbane and began to look at the portal.

"We've got more pressing issues to handle now. Those two are on a totally different level than us. Let's hope they kill each other or something. We on the other hand need to destroy that damned portal before this place is overrun with those creatures," said Dugger who was observing as the zombies to pour through the portal.

"And just how are we going to do that? The computer system was destroyed when that girl appeared." asked Khalid.

"Oh, I think I know a way," said Meiko smiling at Dave.

"I knew these things would come in handy," said Dave hefting the pack that he wore on his back.

"I like the way you think," said Kyon.

"Let's hurry up and do this already. Their numbers are steadily growing," remarked Kanade who was also observing the oncoming horde.

"Just more for us to kill!" said Sven and Shawn simultaneously.

"Boys..." said Storm shaking her head at the two.

"Very well, how much time do you need?" asked Dugger.

"For the explosion I'm planning, about twenty minutes. That should give us enough time to escape the blast radius. I'm bringing this whole place down and I don't want to be here when these charges go off," said Dave who had begun pulling the explosives out of his pack.

"Well then, what are we waiting for? Let's clear him a path!" shouted Dugger.

The group began to run head first into the oncoming group of zombies when suddenly a huge shock wave shook the area causing the group to stumble and slip on the remains of the zombies that Flandre had killed when she first appeared. The group looked up to the air to see Flandre and Nightbane clashing furiously in the air. Their movements were so fast that it was almost impossible to see them. All that could really be seen were their weapons colliding in mid-air. With each collision of their weapons, it created visible shockwaves that could be seen physically. They shook the entire building.

"Ignore them! Let's kill the ones that we can!" yelled Dugger.

"Banzai!" shouted Meiko enthusiastically.

The group renewed their charge as the struggled to maintain their balance against the continuing shockwaves coming from the fight above them.

The horde themselves picked up speed and soon they collided with the survivors.

The group had formed a wedge to attempt to pierce through the zombie horde so that Dave could reach the portal and plant the explosives. Sven, Shawn, and Yuki had stayed back near the elevator to guard it and to cover the groups advance with their long rifles. Khalid formed the tip of the spear with his pike and Dugger and Meiko were on his flanks. Storm and Kanade were beside Dugger and Meiko respectively. Dave was tucked in behind Khalid and Kyon covered his back with his trusty frying pan. As usual, Khalid cut large swaths through the zombies with his pike but it appeared that one zombie had caught on to his movements. It reached out, grabbed Khalid's pike mid-swing, and ripped it away. Khalid was weaponless. Dugger saw this and exclaimed "Oh, heck naw!" He immediately beheaded the zombie he was engaged with and jumped over to where Khalid was fighting off zombies with his bare hands as he attempted to recover his pike. Dugger tossed him one of his fighting knives. Khalid caught it mid punch and used it to rip the throat out of one zombie that was trying to bite his neck and with a flick of his wrist, he reversed his grip and stabbed another zombie in the head. "Kanade!" shouted Dugger. "Got ya!" she replied. She jumped into the air and slaying a zombie on the way down with her pistol, landed next to Dugger. He nodded at the pike laying on the ground a few meters in front of them. Kanade nodded. Dugger kicked out viciously at one zombie and it landed on it's back and began to slid on the blood soaked ground. Dugger took Kanade's hand and threw her on the sliding zombie. She landed on it's back and immediately began to open fire. She cleared a path to the pike and picked it up. She tossed it at Khalid where it impaled a zombie in the back. As Kanade's improvised meat skate board stopped, she was grabbed around the neck by a zombie. It pulled her back and leaned over to bite her when a knife flew right past her head and impaled the zombie in it's skull. It was Dugger's fighting knife that he had lent to Khalid. He grinned. He impaled a zombie through the chest and ran forward, clearing a path to Kanade.

Storm and Meiko had got separated from the group when Khalid lost his pike. They were back to back as the zombies closed in on them. Storm fired with her Glock at one zombie and took it out. Another one immediately filled in the gap. Meiko fired a long burst into the crowed and took out quite a few zombies, but they still continued to rush towards them. Storm fired another burst at another zombie, taking it down. She took aim at another one and pulled the trigger. Click. She holstered the pistol and pulled out one of her knives. Meiko on the other side of her was facing a similar problem. Meiko had run out of ammo also. She dropped her rifle and pulled out her dual katanas. "Well, looks like this is it," said Meiko thrusting her katana into the guts of one zombie as she chopped the arms off of another one. "It was quite fun," replied Storm who had just withdrawn her knife from the eye of one zombie was was currently hacking the head off of another. "But they just won't end..." she replied breathlessly. The two women were growing weary from all of the hacking and slashing, but no end appeared in sight. A loud clang rang out. Followed by another one. And another. Massive blood sprays shot up into the air. Storm reached out to impale another zombie with her knife when a zombie reached out and bit her arm. She cried out. Meiko disengaged from her zombie and cartwheeled over Storm. She brought both of her swords down and cleaved the zombie that had bit her clean in two. Storm collapsed to the ground. Meiko sensing the zombies closing in whirled with both of her swords, creating a circle of deadly steel between her and Storm against the zombies. She kept up the whirl for as long as she could, but like Storm she was growing tired herself. "Damn... So it ends like this..." she said to herself. At that moment raipid gunfire was seen piercing through the zombies that were closing through her circle of blades. It was Sven and Yuki from the rear. The zombies fell around her. One zombie that wasn't completely downed crawled to her and grabbed her leg, tripping her up. The zombie attempted to bite her but right before it could sink it's teeth into her leg it's head shattered into a red mist. A frying pan appeared in front of her face. It was Kyon. Beside him was Shawn. He had taken a knee and was pouring fire into the zombies with his rifle. Kyon was soaked with blood and his frying pan was severely dented. His usual cheerful demeanor was gone. Without a word he picked up Storm and gently put her over his shoulder. He reached down and helped Meiko up.

"I'm getting you out of here," he said. With Storm on his shoulder and while assisting Meiko he bashed his way to Sven and Yuki in the rear as they continued to pour sniper fire into the zombies as they tried to clear a path for Kyon to escape. Shawn covered their rear as the group worked their way back to the relative safety of Sven and Yuki.

In the air above the battle of the survivors and the zombies, Flandre and Nightbane continued their battle. The two were very fierce warriors. Nightbane move impossibly fast trying to penetrate Flandre's defenses, but she easily repelled his attacks and continued to deliver her own. Her spear batted away Nightbanes sword with easy. She was smiling throughout the entire battle. Nightbane seeing that using his sword was not having any effect on Flandre, decided to change tactics. He channeled a wave of energy and thrust it at Flandre. She attempted to block, but the sword breached her defenses, gutting her through the chest. Nightbane let out a laugh of triumph. "I knew you were no match for me," he gloated as he observed Flandre slumped over his sword. Flandre started to laugh. "Huh!" exclaimed Nightbane. He attempted to pull out his sword, but Flandre had grabbed it and pulled it deeper into her guts. "Let go, you vile thing!" he roared as he attempted to pull back, but Flandre's strength was way to much for him. She pulled the sword in all the way to the hilt until she was face to face with Nightbane. She smiled and bared her teeth. "No!" yelled Nightbane as he attempted to kick himself away from Flandre, but it was too late. Flandre took her free hand and pierced through Nightbane's chest. "Bye, bye!" she said sweetly as she clenched her hand around Nightbane's spine. Nightbane roared in pain. Flandre focused her energy into the palm of her hand and then released all of the energy that she had summoned. Nightbane exploded showering Flandre in even more blood. She licked her lips. "More," she said and flew off looking for something to feast on. She went to the rear of the facility to find Sven, Meiko, Yuki, and Kyon gathered in a circle around Storm. When she appeared they all leveled their weapons at her. The group who had witnessed the destruction of Nightbane took a step back, but didn't leave Storm's side.

"What do you want, demon?" asked Sven who had his rifle aimed at Flandre's head.

"I'm hungry," said Flandre landing in front of the group.

Shawn didn't even ask a question. He opened fire immediately on Flandre. But none of the bullets reached her. A second she was there and the next she was right in front of his face. She punched him in the chest and sent him flying back into the wall which left a crater where he impacted. He slid down motionless.

Flandre stopped smiling and once again her eyes lit up.

"Stop." said Yuki stepping in front of Flandre. "Feed on her," she said pointing at Storm laying on the ground. Storm moaned. She had grown very pale.

"What are you doing!" yelled Meiko stepping between Flandre and Yuki. "You've done nothing but get my friends killed! I won't let you take another one!" she drew her katana and started towards Yuki. Yuki said nothing. Meiko brought her swords down towards Yuki. Yuki didn't even try to defend. In an instant she had closed the distance between her and Meiko. "Sorry." she said and impossibly fast, punched Meiko in the stomach. Meiko's eyes opened wide and all the air left her body. She collapsed to the ground. Sven stepped up and pointed his rifle at Yuki. "Trust me," she said to Sven and looked him in the eye. Something connected and he slowly nodded. He lowered his rifle and went to pick up Meiko. He picked her up and went over to check up on Shawn.

"I really hope you know what you're doing." said Kyon to Yuki. He turned away and went to go help Sven check on Meiko and Shawn.

Yuki nodded and gestured towards Storm. Flandre ran over to Storm and picked her up and held her. She bent down and bit into Storm's neck. Storm yelled out in agony as Yuki watched. Flandre slowly drained the life from Storm. Yuki whispered something and a Gap ripped through the fabric of time. Dozens of eyeballs looked out of it. Yuki ran over and with all her strength kicked Flandre. Flandre who was preoccupied with drinking Storm's blood wasn't able to block. "No!" she yelled. She was lifted off her feet and went flying into the Rip that had appeared. When Flandre entered it, the Rip disappeared. Yuki ran over to Storm and checked her. Storm had passed put. Her pulse was weak, but it was still there. Yuki looked at the bite mark on her arm inflicted by the zombie. It had healed up...

Meanwhile, Dugger, Dave, Kanade, and Khalid had reached the portal.

"That's it! Plant those charges, we'll cover you!" said Dugger. Dave went over to the edge of the portal and began planting the explosive charges on the edge of the portal gate way. Dugger, Kanade, and Khalid formed a protective barrier around him. They repelled any zombie that ventured too close to him. They worked their way around until Dave told them that was it.

"We've got 20 minutes till those things go off. We need to go. Now." said Dave. The group nodded their agreement. They would have to cut a path back out through the zombies to reach the elevator. They had a long way to go back.

"Let's do this then." Dugger said. "Concentrate your fire front, we're riding out here."

"Surf's up!"

"Surf's up!" said Khalid. The four of them leaped up and each of them delivered a flying kick to a allowed the momentum from their kick to propel the zombies that they had kicked forward. They hopped on and began to surf on the gore that Flandre has left behind. Dugger had pulled out his knives and cut his way through. Kanade did like wise. Dave, preferring to run through the horde since he wasn't able to fight on the way to the portal cut his way though with wide swipes from his broadsword. Khalid was using his pike like an oar and propelled himself forward. Soon the group reached the doors of the elevator and the kill zone where Sven, Yuki, and Kyon stood over the bodies of Storm, Meiko, and Shawn.

"What happened?" asked Dugger.

"Storm got bit, Meiko's knocked out cold, and Shawn's badly hurt. Oh and the elevator door won't open. We're stuck down here." said Sven. "But I do have good news, that vampire chick thing is gone and Nightbane blew up. Doesn't do us much good though."

"They approach." said Yuki taking notice of the zombies still pouring though the portal.

"We hold here then. Yuki and Khalid, see what you can do on that door. The rest of us will hold the line. You've got five minutes to get that door open or we're all dead." said Kanade. They got to work immediately.

"Are y'all ready? This might be our last stand. It was an honor fighting by your side." said Dugger.

They stood side by side staring down the approaching zombies. They all looked at Dugger and nodded. There was no need for words.

"Fire!" yelled Kyon. He brought his shotgun up and fired. The group followed his lead.

The group fought on fiercly, and the time slowly passed. The bodies piled up in front of the elevator doors. Dave's watch beeped. 10 minutes remaining.

"We're trapped" said Khalid as he pulled at wires on the elevator door, trying to get it to work. Yuki silently pressed on.

Dugger backed up and pulled a device out of his pocket. "Looks like this is it." He was about to press the button when suddenly a loud explosion was heard. The roof began to collapse and huge chunks began to fall from the sky. Light poured through. Through the gap descended an Osprey, as soon as it cleared the opening, it began opening fire on the zombies that were close to the group. V-22 OspreyThe symbol of the Specters was emblazoned on tail of the craft. It landed on a pile of zombies close to the group. The rear hatched opened up and out poured Specters. Gunfire erupted from the portholes on the side of craft and began taking out zombies. The Specters surrounded the craft and began fighting the zombies.

"Specters?" asked Dugger. "And they're not attacking us."

Just then two figures in full battle gear walked up to Dugger and the others. They removed their helmets.

"Long time no see, guys," said Shogou smiling.

The second figure was covered in blood, but he still smiled. "I hope y'all didn't think I was dead," said Steel.


	10. The Gathering

Shogou watched as the two choppers departed from the ship. "I hope those guys will be alright," he said to himself as he walked back to the bridge. He met up with the Commander Mark in the control room. He was standing by one of the windows watching as the choppers disappeared into the distance. The Commander heard Shogou approach so he turned around to face him.

"What do you think are the odds of them coming back?" he asked.

"They've been through a lot together. I think they'll be alright." responded Shogou.

"And what about that thing that killed the Captain?"

"They will track him down and kill him. I can't stand traitors. If I were with them I would put the final blow on him myself. Damned demon." said Shogou darkly.

"I understand your sentiments. But that aside, what are you plans now?" asked the Commander.

"We need to form an alliance. If that group fails to stop the portal and Nightbane, we are going to need to formulate another plan of action. These zombies and other such creatures which have been released pose a major threat to the entire world. Most of the world's major powers have been crippled by this virus or whatever it is. The governments are in disarray or infected themselves. Their militarizes are not functioning. And yet I know of one force besides ours that may be able to combat this threat. They are the Specters." answered Shogou.

"Those mercenary bastards? They're ruthless. All they do is fight for money. They're a bunch of cold blooded..." the Commander trailed off.

"We don't need heroes right now. Our heroes are about to fly into the fight of their lives. If they complete their mission the flow of these creatures will stop. And yet the world will still be filled with those things. Some survivors may still be out there fighting, but if they are they are fighting defensively. We need to go on the offense and bring the fight to them. And that's what the Specters do best."

"I see your point. Very well then, I approve of your mission. Seek out the Specters and bring them to our side. I will supply you with six of my men and one of our choppers. Do what you have to, but be careful when dealing with cutthroats." said the Captain. Shogou nodded his assent.

"Will do, Commander," replied Shogou.

"I'll monitor our boys going to war. Go, but be safe," said the Commander turning from Shogou and going over to one of his Lieutenants to begin planning. From below a chopper could be heard spinning up.

Shogou left the bridge and went down to the flight deck where he met the six soldiers in front of the awaiting chopper. They were all dressed in full battle gear with helmets that had optical eye pieces attached to them. They wore black flak jackets that were covered with full magazine pouches, grenades, and combat knives. They all carried M-4 Carbines. One of them stepped forward, removed his helmet, and extended his hand. Shogou shook it firmly.

"The name's Sebastian. I'm the team leader of this group. We're yours to command. We've fought these things before and we've heard of your exploits. It's an honor to serve under you," said the solider.

"Doesn't mean anything till I see you guys in battle, so let's skip the formalities. Load up." The group nodded and boarded the chopper. Shogou got clearance from the tower and they took off.

The group flew for what seemed hours when a voice from the com system spoke up. "Unidentified aircraft, you have entered restricted air space. Identify yourself or you will be shot down." The chopper was hovering over a large military base that was currently under attack. Zombies and other creatures were attempting to scale the walls, but Specters on top of the walls fended them off. Bright flashes of gunfire and explosions surrounded the base.

"Don't you have other problems to handle at the moment?" asked Shogou observing the carnage below him.

"Not recognized," replied the speaker from the com system. Alarms began to blare in the cockpit. "Missile lock!" yelled Shogou. He wanked on the control stick while at the same time deploying chaff. A missile streaked past the windshield and exploded in the distance. A near miss. Sweat began to stream down Shogou's face as he attempted to dodge the incoming anti-air fire. The sweat was beginning to blur his vision so Shogou reached up with one hand and wiped the sweat from his eye, but as he did so his hand left the control stick for a brief moment and in that moment the chopper was hit by anti-air fire. "We're hit! Bail out, bail out!" he screamed. The chopper began to spin out of control. Seeing that any attempt to regain control of the helicopter was futile, he unstrapped himself from his seat and clamored back to the passenger bay. The hatches were already open and explosions and strange creatures could be seen through them. The soldiers had already unbuckled, strapped on their flight gear, and exited the chopper. Shogou got on his and with a loud shout of "Banzai!" jumped out of the chopper.

The air was filled with explosions and those flying creatures that were assailing the Specters defending the walls. The helicopter exploded in the air after being hit by another missile. Shogou barely dodged the falling debris. He keyed his comlink. "Black Knights, report in!"

"BK Two reporting in," replied Sebastian.

"BK Four here," replied another.

"BK Three's chute didn't deploy. He didn't make it." replied BK Five.

"Six is here." said another voice.

"This is Seven! My suit's been damaged! I can't control my dececnt, I'm falling too quickly! He-" his voice cut out in a burst of static.

"Gundam it! All remaining Knights, form up on me. They need our help down there. Let's go. Watch out for anti-air fire and those flying things." said Shogou.

They were gliding two thousand feet above the air. With their flight suits they formed up beside Shogou and flew though the air, avoiding the enemy fire and the flying creatures. When they reached the one thousand feet mark one of the Knights were hit by anti-air fire and his suit burst into flame. At that moment one of the creatures picked up that somebody was wounded and moved in for the kill. The creature impacted him and began biting at him. The two wrestled in the air, but the solider had lost control and him and the creature fell from the sky.

"BK Four, come in! BK Four!" yelled Sebastian into his com-link, but there was no response.

Shogou glanced at his altimeter. 400ft it read. "Let 'em rip!" ordered Shogou and in unison four parachutes opened up and the soldiers drifted to the ground. They were floating directly into the horde that was trying to breach the base perimeter walls. "This isn't good." thought Shogou to himself. "Drop frags onto our LZ!" he yelled. The soldiers ripped frag grenades from their vests, pulled the pins, and let them drop. The grenades blew a hole in the swarming zombies and the soldiers landed in the center of them all. They immediately disengaged their parachutes and opened fire on the surrounding zombies.

"We've got to get to the main gate! Push forward!" yelled Shogou over the roar of their guns.

"We're trying, but there are a lot of these things!" responded Sebastian.

The group ran for the main gate, fire at the same time, trying to keep the zombies and flying creatures at bay. They made it to the gate, but they were shut closed. They started to bang on them, all the while keeping up fire at the approaching creatures. They fired and fired and fired, but there seemed to be no end to them. Eventually they ran out of ammo and were forced to pull out their melee weapons. "Might as well go out in a blaze of glory." thought Shogou to himself. "Banzai!" he yelled as he prepared to run into the horde, but as soon as he took off, he was stopped dead in his tracks by a wall of gunfire in front of him. The gunfire was raining down from above as the Specters on the walls covered him by spraying massive amounts of lead. Suddenly the gates opened and out streamed the Specters. They formed a line and opened fire. They were led by a giant of a man. He wielded a massive metal shield and he carried an M-240 medium machine gun. On his back there was a huge sword. As Shogou was watching the spectacle in amazement, he was tackled to the ground. A infected dog was on top of his chest and was attempting to tear out his throat when a blur flashed over his head and kicked the dog. A woman in a green and white dress with flowing red hair was standing over him. She assumed a stance and leapt into the crowd of zombies. The other three Black Knight soldiers ran by his side and dragged him backwards into the base. Shogou, not one to be left out of the fight drew his pistol and fired back into the zombies as the rest of the Specters retreated back into the base along with the giant and the red haired woman. Even though the gates had shut the firing from the walls did not let up as the zombies continued their assault. Shogou got up and brushed himself off. He looked up and saw that the sky was swarming with those creatures.

"To the walls!" yelled the giant.

On his command, the Specters that had came out to save the Black Knights rushed back up the stairs and began firing on the flying creatures. The Black Knights joined them. There were two machine guns set up on pillars gunning down the flying creatures. One of them was hit but continued on it's path straight into a Specter who had his back turned on the wall. The creature collided with the Specter and sent him plummeting over the wall where he was quickly torn to pieces. One of the machine gunners sighted in on an incoming flying creature and fired, but the creature evaded. The creature flew down and with it's mouth open wide, took off the head of the Specter who fell off his post and landed in the compound. Another Specter immediately ran up and took his spot. The soldiers picked up rifles from the fallen Specters and assisted in the fight, meanwhile Shogou ran along the wall looking for the giant who he believed who was the leader. He found the giant pouring fire into the creatures attempting to scale the wall.

"Are you the leader of this group?" asked Shogou.

"Yeah, but I should be asking you the questions." said the giant. "Why are you at my base?"

"We came to enlist your help. But it looks like you all are in quite the situation." responded Shogou.

"We can handle our own." said the giant as he continued to fire at the enemy.

The sounds of something large could be heard pounding on the wall. One of the Specters ran up to the giant covered in blood and bleeding from multiple gashes.

"Brick, the gate's not going to hold them back much longer, we've got to get out of here. The base is lost!" said the Specter breathlessly.

Brick looked around and saw the Specters nearest him looking at him also. They were tired and they were running low on ammunition. They knew that they would not be able to hold on much longer. Brick looked back at Shogou.

"Looks like we're both in a perdiciment here. You have no way to leave, and we have no where to go. I think we can work out a deal. Take us to where you came from and I'll give you a ride out of here. We can discuss negotiations later. Right now, I need to get my men out of here."

Shogou nodded when suddenly the entire ground shook. The Specters were thrown to the bottom wall. The main gate was breached by a huge monstrosity. It was a Tank. A huge mutated zombie and there were others behind it. The horde began to swarm into the base.

"Damn! Fall back to the Ospreys! The base is lost!" he yelled and alarms began to blare. The Specters that were remaining on the wall began to run for the lower decks but were being picked off by the flying creatures now that they had stopped firing at them.

"You and your men are coming with me. They're not going to take my base... Intact." He ran off and Shogou along with his men followed him. The flowing red haired woman followed them along with another one of his Specters.

"At you about to blow it?" she asked.

"Yeah," replied Brick as they ran past the Ospreys that were on the landing strip waiting for the retreating Specters.

They ran into a long corridor into a control room. "Cover me," said Brick as he typed commands into a computer. The group did as such. The red haired woman watched his back while Shogou, the other Specter, and his men went to the doorway. The zombies had breached the facility and were running down the hallway. The recently fallen Specters were along with them, their wounds still bleeding.

"Open fire!" yelled Shogou and they did as such, tripping up the first wave. The second wave ran through the falling second wave and closed in. It was lead by a Nemesis.

"Damn it, Dugger told me about those things. We don't have the weapons to take that thing out, we have to go now!" yelled Shogou. The red haired woman appeared in the door way and walked out. "What is she doing?" asked Sebastien, lowering his weapon since he didn't want to shoot the woman.

"That's Meiling. She can handle it." said the Specter beside them.

"Let's see what she got."

The second wave halted when they saw the woman, it was as if they were stunned. But it was only temporarily, they swarmed around the woman as she assumed a martial arts stance. The horde attacked, reaching out with undead arms towards her. She reacted. She grabbed one zombie by the arm, spun it around and tossed it down the hallway, taking out a long line of zombies. The Nemesis swung at her with one huge clawed arm. Meiling jumped up and ran down the creatures arm. She sat on it's head, reached down with her arms grabbing the creature around it's waist, and flipped it over, crushing many zombies that were near it. She jumped up in the air and brought her heels down directly on the Nemesis head, crushing it completely. She dodged another swipe from a zombie and ducked low, grabbing it's leg and tearing it off. The zombie fell to the ground. With decaying leg in hand, Meiling wielded it as if were a baseball bat. She swung hard at the skull of one zombie shattering it along with the leg. She broke the leg in half and used them both as clubs. She swung every which way taking out many zombies in the process. The group looked at her in awe, all except the Specter. By that time, the computer system spoke up and announced that there was 10 minutes remaining until the facility self destructed.

"Time to go," said Brick. And with that the group took off down the hallway racing towards the landing strip. It was a scene of chaos. There were zombies everywhere. The bodies of the fallen Specters littered the ground. Some of them were still stirring. Crashed and burning Ospreys littered the landing area. There was a lone one sitting on the tarmac. They ran towards it. The blades of it were already whirling. There were a group of Specters around it firing at anything that approached. The group ran up into the back of it and the Specters who were defending it did the same. The hatch closed up.

"Get us out of here!" ordered Brick to the pilot.

The Osprey began it's assent into the sky.

"Get on the guns, those Slythers are still around." said Brick.

"Slythers?" asked Shogou.

"The flying creatures," answered Meiling.

Shogou and Brick went up front into the cockpit as the Specters manned the mini-guns and began firing at the Slythers who were beginning to attack the craft.

"How many made it?" asked Brick to the pilot.

"About six, sir. The others were either taken out on the ground or they were brought down. It was pretty bad."

"Damn, there were twenty Ospreys too... Get us to the rally point, from there we'll regroup." said Brick.

The pilot nodded, switched the propellers to airplane mode and flew off as the base detonated in a ball on nuclear flame.

They soon reached the rally point. There were six other Ospreys hovering in the air. They were all scarred in someway from escaping from the base.

"All craft, report in." ordered Brick.

The com-link crackled to life.

"Uniform Six Six, standing by."

"Uniform Four Eight, standing by."

"Uniform One Three, all systems are green."

"Uniform Five Nine, reporting in."

"Uniform Victor Three, we have wounded aboard."

"Uniform Two Eight, standing by."

"Alright then, follow our lead. We'll take you to our new home." said Shogou.

The Ospreys got into position behind Shogou's Osprey and flew out to sea. They saw the carrier in the distance. Shogou got on the comlink and asked for clearance to land. It was granted. They touched down on the aircraft carrier and opened the hatches. Medical crews had stretchers waiting for the wounded on Uniform Victor. When the hatches opened on that one, it was a sight to see. There was blood everywhere. The wounded Specters lay unconscious on the deck. The non wounded ones helped them onto the stretchers and took them down to medical. The Specters went down below to an open berthing bay while Shogou, Brick, Meiling, Sebastien, and the other Specter who was with them went to the bridge. Commander Mark was hunched over a communication system. He turned to Shogou, ignoring the others.

"We've lost contact with Black Knight One and Two." said the Commander.

"What? What was the last transmission you received from them?" asked Shogou.

The comm operator pressed a button and the speakers activated.

"We're hit! BK Two is hit! I repeat BK Two is going down!" screamed the pilot. "Brace for impact!" yelled Kanade.

"The transmission ends there," said the comm operator.

"That's all I need to hear. We're going to get them." said Shogou.

"And we're going with you." said Brick. "We owe you, and it's time to pay you back."

Shogou nodded.


	11. Forces United

Steel turned his head for a moment and watched as Dugger and the rest of the survivors from the Black Knight chopper ran off into the woods in pursuit of Nightbane and the portal. Seeing Steel distracted, Uruz struck out with his sword towards Steel's neck. Steel deflected the blow without even looking at Uruz. Around the two the Specters were busy fighting the Hellhounds that swarmed the area. The two crossed blades, each one looking for a weakness in the other.

"Why are you here, much less alive? I watched you die." asked Steel as he pushed against Uruz.

"Death is but only the beginning. How about I show you sometime?" responded Uruz, his blade still crossed with Steel's.

"Like Hell," responded Steel, head-butting Uruz.

Uruz wasn't even fazed by the blow. He allowed his blade to slip, causing Steel to stumble forward. Uruz took this opportunity and kicked Steel in the chest, sending him flying back into a tree where he slumped to the ground. One of the Hellhounds who had just finished disemboweling a Specter leaped on Steel's chest, its bloody mouth snapping at Steel's head. Steel grabbed each of the beast's massive jaws and twisted sharply, breaking the beast's neck. The creature collapsed on top of Steel, dead. He pushed it off only to be met face to face with a Specter. The Specter has his rifle pointed at Steel's face. "Damn," thought Steel to himself as he prepared to face his fate. The Specter pulled the trigger and click. His rifle had jammed. When he looked down to examine his jammed weapon and sword pierced through his back and burst through his chest. It didn't kill the Specter immediately. He weakly grabbed at the blade and tried to pull himself off of it when suddenly the blade shot upwards, splitting the Specter in half from the waist up. A fountain of blood shot up into the air and when it subsided, there stood Uruz, his sword dripping with the Specter's blood.

"Don't even care about your own men, you bastard!" yelled Steel as he picked himself up off the ground and dashed at Uruz with his guns drawn and blazing. Uruz smiled and assumed a defensive stance with his sword held out in front of him. Steel fired round after round with his pistols at Uruz, but somehow Uruz managed to deflect the bullets and even dodged a few of them, but since he was so busy blocking the shots, Steel managed to close the gap between them. He broke through Uruz's defenses and pointed on of his pistols at Uruz point blank. Uruz suddenly ducked and swung his sword upwards toward Steel at the same time. Steel blocked the blow with one of his pistols, but Uruz's attack was so strong that the pistol went flying from his hand. Undeterred, Steel kicked out at Uruz's sword and Uruz did the same at Steel's remaining pistol. Both of their kicks landed and sent their weapons flying. They didn't hesitate. Steel immediately pulled out one of his fighting knives and Uruz did the same. The two slashed, cut, and jabbed at each other. The fight dragged on for what seemed like forever as the Specters continued to fight and die around them. Steel was growing weary and Uruz could tell. Steel slashed mightily at Uruz who blocked the blow with his forearm, opening up Steel for attack. Uruz's hand shot out and punched Steel in the stomach. He grunted and staggered for a moment as his strength temporarily left him. Uruz slashed at Steels head and Steel was barely able to deflect the blow. Uruz's knife cut across Steel's face, causing blood to trickle down Steel's face. Uruz slashed downwards, but Steel was able to successfully block the blow. Suddenly the wind picked up and a loud roar was heard. Steel looked up to see an Osprey descending from the sky. He felt a sharp pain in his chest which caused him to look down. Uruz's dagger was sticking out of his chest. Steel stumbled back and collapsed on his back to the ground. The last thing he saw was the Osprey touching down and it's rear hatch opening up. The world went black.

Steel awoke to a world of chaos. He was still lying on his back. Around him Specters were fighting other Specters and the Hellhounds were pouncing on the weaker and wounded Specters, tearing them limb from limb in their weakened state. He groggily looked around for Uruz and he spotted him in the distance fighting a bespeckeled solider. He recognized him to be Shogou. The fight wasn't going well for Shogou. Shogou had lost his sword earlier in the fight and was fighting with Uruz hand to hand. Shogou was soon knocked to the ground by Uruz and Steel could only watch. Uruz was obviously playing with him. He stood over Shogou kicking and stomping at him as Shogou tried to defend himself. Nobody was around to help him as they were engaged in their own battles. Steel tried to get up but he was exhausted and bleeding out from his fight with Uruz. He looked down at himself and saw the knife sticking out of his chest. "No vital organs, thank God," said Steel to himself as he looked over at Shogou. Shogou was weakening and was beginning to be unable to block Uruz's kicks. Steel had to help him, but he had lost all his weapons earlier. He grabbed the only thing that he could find, the knife sticking out of his chest. He clenched his teeth in pain as he put both hands around the knife and started to slowly pull the cruely serrated blade out of his chest. With a final grunt of pain he finally managed to pull the knife out.

Grabbing the knife by the blade which was slick with his own blood, Steel took aim and let it fly. The knife sailed through the air towards Uruz who was now crouched over Shogou pummeling him with his fists. Just as the knife was about to fly into Uruz, he looked up and grabbed the blade out of the air.

"Didn't think that was going to work, did you?" he asked smiling looking over towards where Steel lay on the ground.

"I did," said Shogou grabbing one of his hidden knives and slashing at Uruz's stomach. The knife connected, cutting open Uruz's stomach, causing him to stagger back. Uruz looked down, not believing that he had been wounded. Shogou got up on wobbly legs and jammed an armed grenade into Uruz's open wound and kicked him back. The grenade went off; ripping Uruz apart and sending Shogou flying back to lay motionless on the ground as Steel blacked out again.

When he came to he was moving. He looked down to see that he was being carried by a huge man wearing Specter gear. He was over his shoulder and Shogou was on the other side, unconscious. The man whose name was Brick wielded a machine gun, and he was spraying lead at anything that ventured too close to them. One particularly bold Hellhound jumped at Brick's back, but Brick heard it coming. He tossed Shogou and Steel in the air and caught the Hellhound out of the air with one massive spiked glove fist. His fist crushed the Hellhounds skull in and sent it flying back off into the woods. Brick reached up and caught Shogou and Steel. The blow from them being caught woke Shogou up and he got down from Brick. Steel followed. Steel put his arm around Shogou's shoulder and together they limped behind Brick as he lead them back to the Osprey. They looked around and saw that the battle had been won. The newly allied Specter's were beginning to carry their wounded and dead back to the Osprey. They left the Hellhounds to rot in the forest. Shogou turned to bloody Steel.

"What the hell happened?" asked Shogou to Steel as they followed Brick into the Osprey. They took a seat in the jump chairs and began to discuss what had occurred while the two were separated. Brick sat opposite of them as the Specter's continued to load up.

"Just that," responded Steel as one of the female Specter medics wrapped a bandage over his wounded face.

"I mean what happened to the others. We received a transmission from Kanade saying that they had been hit and were going down. Are they all dead?" asked Shogou.

"I don't know. We lost contact with them after they were hit by anti-air fire by the Specters and attacked by those flying Slyther things. I can only hope for the best. As for our group, things didn't turn out so well. Profit, Ashley, and the pilot were all killed during our battle with the Specters and the Hellhounds. When the Hellhounds and Uruz appeared, I volunteered to stay behind and buy Dugger and the rest some time as they went off to go find Nightbane and the portal. But that was a long time ago. I was fighting with Nightbane for quite some time. Thanks for the help, by the way," replied Steel.

"Yeah. The loss of those warriors was tragic, but we must continue on. Do you know where they are now?" asked Shogou as the last of the wounded were brought aboard the Osprey.

"Before I answer that, answer me this, why are the Specters working with us when they just tried to kill us?" asked Steel gesturing towards the Specters in the chopper.

"I can answer that," said Brick speaking up. "A while ago a demon infiltrated our base, by passed all of our defenses, and met up with Uruz. I don't know how he did it. Our security is top notch. But anyway, the demon spoke with Uruz who was in command of us in time. The demon spoke of a plan to take over the world. But he said he needed help of a strong force, so he came to enlist our help. He offered a place in his new world for us to stand as his military force. Power he offered. Uruz, who you both know by now is corrupted, accepted his offer. But even though he accepted, we didn't all agree. We want money. Plain and simple. And I don't really trust things that come from other plains of existence, just as a general basis, you know. So our forces split up. Those loyal to Uruz went with him. Those were the ones that you fought against. We didn't really like him anyway; the guy was ruthless even for a Specter. So I took command of the rest of the forces and decided to hold down the fort. I guess that demon thing realized that if we weren't with him, we were against him, so he sent all of those zombies and other such things after our base… And you see how that turned out. We now realize there money just isn't important as it once was. So we've decided to fight with you all to take out this new threat, because money's not going to do us much good if we're all dead. That's why we'll fight by your side."

"I see. Well I'm alright with that, as long as y'all don't try and betray us. Right now we need to find out where the others went and see have they accomplished their mission. Shogou, you got any ideas?" asked Steel.

Shogou looked down at the tracker he had in his hand, it told him where they were at. "Yeah." He replied. He went to the Osprey's pilot and gave him the directions. The Osprey took off into the air. They soon came upon the facility.

"Is this the place?" asked Steel looking down at the facility below.

"Yep, but I'm reading that they are deep below ground. And from the estimation of the timeline that I set it, we don't have time to go down there and walk down some steps or something. This place is going to blow soon. We have to get them out now," responded Shogou.

"Blow?" asked Steel incredibly.

"It's a fail-safe in case your mission failed. There was a time line. When that time is reached, a missile will be launched from the ship, and will decimate this entire island. We don't have time to discuss this, we have get down there somehow," said Shogou.

"I've got just the thing, said Brick standing up. "Hold on a second. I've got something that can get us down there." He stood up and walked into the cockpit. A moment later something shot out from the Osprey toward the ground. It hit, but didn't immediately explode.

"Is that it?" asked Steel looking confused. But Brick only smiled. A moment later there was a huge eruption from below ground and the facility began to collapse.

"You had a bunker-burster onboard? I'm impressed. Take us down. I think our friends need us." said Shogou

The Osprey descended into the newly made hole in the ground. Below them was a massive cavern that was covered in blood. They could see a mob of zombies heading towards a group of people who had apparently been fighting for a while since there was also large pile of bodies piled up in front of them.

"Those are our boys! Open up with the guns and take us down, right in front of them. Clear a path and get them on board we don't have much time left." Ordered Shogou.

The Osprey descended with guns blazing. They touched down and the Specters, along with Shogou and Steel, ran out to meet the rest of the survivors. The Specter engaged with the nearest zombies to buy them some time. Shogou and Steel walked over to where the rest of the survivors were standing. Shogou and Steel took off their helmets and greeted the group.

"Long time no see," said Shogou smiling.

"Didn't think I was dead, did y'all?" asked Steel.

"Well look who showed up. It's good to see y'all, but we need to get out of here now. The portal is about to blow and Nightbane is dead. We need to get out of here now," said Dugger.

Shogou nodded, and looked over the group. He saw Shawn, Storm, and Meiko laying on the ground. He ran over to them and checked their pulse. He breathed a sigh of relief when he discovered that they had all had a pulse, although a weak one. He picked Meiko up, Dugger picked up Storm, and Sven and Kyon picked up Shawn and took them to the chopper. The Specter's broke off from their attack and fell back into the Osprey. The remainder of the group followed. The pilot gunned the engines and the Osprey shot up into the sky through the hole that it made. He flipped it into aircraft mode and raced away. A huge fire ball erupted and rocked the Osprey with turbulence. They made it away safely.

As they flew off to sea towards the groups told their stories of the events that lead up to them meeting together again. They soon reached the aircraft carrier, only to see that there were numerous fires on deck, along with sporadic gunfire from soldiers and sailors, and zombies who were trying to attack them.

"What's going on down there?" asked Kyon looking out of the porthole on the Osprey as they circled the ship.

"Looks like the infection has reached the ship," commented Dave, loading his guns.

"We never get a break, do we?" asked Sven as he also loaded his sniper rifle with ammo that he had found aboard.

"Nope," said Khalid cleaning off his pike.

The radio crackled to life. "Specter Five, come in! Specter Five, come in!" said the communications officer on the ship. Gunfire could be heard in the background.

Dugger got on the mic. "This is Specter Six, what's happening?" he asked.

"The ship is under attack. We have infected on board and it's spreading. We need to stop it now! Land immediately and help us clear the ship. Hold on." Gunfire could be heard along with the sound of a hatch collapsing. A woman screamed in the background. "They've broken through! He-," he was cut off as the communication line went dead with a burst of static.

"Gear up, we're going down there and taking back our ship," ordered Dugger.

The survivors and Specters reloaded their weapons as the Osprey went in for a landing.

"Out of the frying pan, into the fire," said Kanade.

Yuki nodded.


	12. Troubled Waters

As the Osprey descended to the deck of the overrun ship, the group discussed their plan of action.

"Alright, y'all, here's the plan. We need to retake the ship, put out those fires, regain control of the bridge rescue the remaining crew, and kill all of the infected on-board. To do this we'll need to split up. First thing we need to handle though is our wounded that we have on-board now. Shawn's hurt pretty bad and I don't know when he'll wake up. Meiko's un-, " he was interrupted by a hand grabbing his arm. It was Meiko.

She looked confused. "Storms hurt. I need to help her," she said.

Dugger put his hand on Meiko's shoulder trying to reassure her. Meiko looked over to see Storm slumped down in her crash harness unconscious. She was about to get up and go over to her, but Dugger tightened up his grip on her shoulder and pushed her back down into her seat.

"She's alright, just knocked out," said Dugger.

"No, I saw her get bit. She can't be alright. And then I saw Yuki offer her to that girl. That's when she must have knocked me out," said Meiko angrily.

"Who, hold on there. Yuki's not a traitor. I think that vampire girl saved her life," said Kyon standing between the two women.

"She was going to die and become one of the infected. I did what had to be done," responded Yuki, calmly looking at Meiko.

Meiko pushed Dugger away and stormed over to where Yuki was sitting, but she was interrupted by the cabin jostling. She stumbled and almost fell, but Dave caught her. He shook his head. The Osprey had landed on the ship. Sporadic gunfire could be heard outside.

"We don't have time for this," said Shogou.

"Agreed. We'll settle this later. Kanade and Meiko and Steel, stay and watch over the wounded. Make sure they're alright. And Meiko, your head isn't in the game right now. I can't have you go out there and getting yourself hurt again. Calm down for a bit and I want you to rest up from your fight Steel," said Dugger sternly.

Meiko glared at Dugger but didn't argue.

Steel nodded.

"Got ya," said Kanade. "And I'll keep an eye on Meiko," she said as she went over to check on the wounded soliders.

"Dave, Yuki, and Sebastian, y'all are our tech experts. I want y'all to go down to the engineering bay to restore power to the ship. I can see from here that it's out. I don't want this thing to become a ghost ship. Since the power's out, y'all are probably going to be fighting in the dark. That's not a problem, is it?" asked Dugger.

"Nothing scares me. Are you going to be alright Yuki?" said Dave, turning to Yuki. She responded by loading a round into her rifle and attaching a flashlight to it.

"Should have known," remarked Dave.

"Khalid, Kyon, and a team of Specters, I want y'all to clear the ship. Kill all of the infected, and help out any survivors who need it," ordered Dugger.

"And find my men. I want to know what happened to them," said Brick.

Kyon nodded. "I've always wanted to explore an aircraft carrier. Hey, let's stop at the kitchen first. My frying pan's messed up pretty bad. I want to try out one of those military grade frying pans," said Kyon eagerly.

"A frying pan? Really? Of all the weapons you could have picked, you chose a frying pan?" commented Brick, shaking his head in disbelief.

"He's pretty handy with one. It's not dented up for no reason," said Khalid.

"If you say so," replied Brick.

"Shogou, Sven, Brick, and the rest of the Specters are with me. We need to fight our way across the deck and make our way up to the bridge. We have to find the Commander and find out what's going on," said Dugger. "Everybody ready?" he asked.

They responded by nodding their heads while others chose to respond by racking back the slides of their weapons and loaded a round. Dugger pressed a button on the bulkhead and the rear hatch of the Osprey opened up.

Before them was a scene of chaos. A storm had come up and rain was pouring down. Scattered across the deck were the bodies of sailors, soldiers, and Specters who had died fighting the infection. The dead roamed the deck, chasing down those who were too slow to get away, and dragging them down to the deck where the dead fell upon them and tore them apart with cold hands and bloody teeth. On the far end of the deck towards one of the elevators, a weak defensive position had been established by a flaming crashed chopper. Manning the position were a few sailors and soldiers who had acquired pistols and rifles from the armory. The less fortunate were hiding behind them holding makeshift weapons such as wrenches, hammers, and knives that were already stained with the blood of their fallen comrades. The group had their attention focused on the zombies that came at them from the front, so they failed to notice the flaming legless zombie that crawled out of the wreckage and make its way over to one of the unsuspecting soldiers. The zombie grabbed the soldier, setting him aflame, and tripping him up. As he fell, he neglected to release the trigger of his rifle so as he fell to the deck, he fired into his own friends. Since they were now distracted by the downfall of one of their own, the zombies who they had been previously holding back rushed them and overran their position. Even though they were overrun, they refused to go down without a fight. They fired their weapon point blank and swung their weapons with all their might, but there were just too many. The ones who had not already fallen broke and ran. There were only three of them left who escaped. They ran across the deck, hoping to jump of the ship. One of them tripped over the catapult and fell, only to have his pursuers quickly fall upon him and tear him to shreds. The other two knew that if they had slowed and tried to help him, they would only suffer the same fate. They reached to edge of the ship and one of them jumped, but the other one hesitated. She was too afraid to do it. She collapsed to the deck crying as the infected continued to rush for her. The survivors had seen enough.

"Get some!" yelled Dugger as the group charged out of the Osprey, into the rainstorm, and began fighting their way to their respective objectives. Kyon and his group went to go save the woman by the edge of the ship, Dugger and his group cleared a path to the bridge and prepared to breach it to begin their assent upwards, while Yuki's group slipped below deck to restore the ship's power.

Kyon, Khalid, and the four Specters that followed them sprinted across the deck towards the collapsed woman, hacking, slashing, bashing, and shooting at anything in their path. But by the time they reached her, it was too late. A group of zombies had fallen on her and were tearing her apart, yet she was still conscious. She screamed and screamed and tried to push them off as they tore into her flesh. As Kyon and the group approached the zombies began to turn from their feast and face the new arrivals, but Kyon didn't even give them the chance. With his dented frying pan in hand, Kyon went into a frenzy. He hit the first zombie so hard that it was sent flying off the ship, he swung at another one and the frying pan turned the zombies skull into mush, but that blow had broken the frying pan, so all Kyon was left with was he handle. Kyon tossed the handle aside and caught the zombie in the side of the head with a closed right fist. The zombie's head caved in and it fell to the ground, dead. Kyon didn't care. He had blanked out. He got on top of the zombie and began to pounding the zombie's skull into the deck with his bare hands. Punch, after punch, after punch, until blood began to fly from his hands from the force of his blows. Khalid and the Specters were so taken back by this sight that they were stunned. Kyon didn't stop beating the zombie until the woman weakly reached out and touched Kyon's arm. She was covered in blood and her stomach had been rent open, exposing her organs to the open air. There were tears streaming down her face and blood dripped from her mouth. "Kill… me…," she said through ragged breaths. Kyon didn't know how to respond. Khalid went over and put his hand on his shoulder and turned Kyon away from the woman and began walking away. Khalid nodded to one of the Specters who nodded in return. A moment later a single gunshot rang out as Kyon and Khalid made their way over to the ladder well that would lead them below deck where they would begin clearing the infection and begin their search for the lost Specters. The blood from the zombie that Kyon had pulverized with his hands continued to drip thickly down to the deck.

Meanwhile, Yuki, Dave, and Sebastian began their decent into the depths of the ship. Since the main power was out, the emergency lights were activated. Their dull read glow reflected eerily off the metal hallways. The sounds of moans and screams could be heard echoing throughout the ship. Throughout the corridors there were bodies lying on the deck and blood stained the bulkheads from where the crew was slain by the infected, oddly enough they hadn't encountered anybody dead or alive yet.

"Are you sure you know where you're going," asked Dave to Yuki.

"Yes," she replied without looking back as she led the way through the bowels of the ship.

"I hope so," commented Sebastian from the rear.

The group encountered a closed hatch that had a large "X" marked on it in blood. Beside the hatch was a dead sailor, his hands were very bloody and he had many gashes on his body. The sign above the hatch read Engineering.

"I guess this is the place then, huh?" asked Sebastian.

"It would appear so," said Dave observing the hatch and the fallen sailor.

"That "X" that he drew on the hatch probably means something bad is on the other side of that hatch, right?" asked Sebastian.

"Probably so. But we're going through there anyway," replied Dave. Yuki nodded her assent. Just then the dead sailor began to move.

"We've got a live one. I've got him," said Sebastian taking aim with his rifle at the zombie's head. He pulled the trigger and blew out the zombies brains. The zombie fell back on the ground. Dave and Sebastian stepped over the corpse, undogged the hatch cautiously, and shown their light through the gap in the hatch. The room was pitch-black. Either the lights were blown or they were not working. They could not see beyond the range of their flashlights.

"Ladies first," said Dave gesturing into the room. She obliged and entered the room. Dave followed after her and Sebastian right after him, but as Sebastian stepped over the threshold, the zombie who he had put down earlier grabbed his leg in a vice grip. Sebastian yelped out startled. Yuki immediately pushed past Dave and put her hand over his mouth, silencing him while she simultaneously pulled out her knife and hacked off the zombies arm. Dave sensing that something was amiss stepped further into the room and shined his flashlight around. He heard a distinct chewing noise so he pointed his flashlight down in front of him. The beam of light revealed a group of zombies eating somebody lying on the deck. They looked up and stared at Dave. He flicked his light off and rapidly backed out of the room, taking Dave and Yuki with him as he slammed the hatch shut. The zombies began pounding on the closed hatch. By now Yuki had dismembered the zombie with her knife. Dave looked down at the now limbless zombie.

"So they've mutated. Whoever designed this was cleverer than I thought," said Dave.

Yuki nodded. "Removing the head will not work anymore. The spine must be severed or the limbs have to be removed."

"So we pretty much just have to destroy the entire body, huh?" asked Sebastian.

"Indeed. Well no sense standing around here. We have a job to complete," said Dave.

"And just how are we going to get in there?" asked Sebastian.

Dave pulled out a grenade and pulled out the pin. Sebastain smiled. The two pulled the hatch up ever so slightly as the undead tried to push their arms through the crack. Dave tossed the grenade in and the two put their shoulders to the hatch and pushed. The hatch closed and with it the arms of the zombies who were trying to open the hatch, came off and feel to the deck. A moment later there was a loud explosion on the other side of the hatch. The pounding stopped.

"Well now that we've got their attention, we might as well get in there. Let's do it," said Dave.

The other two nodded and opened the hatch and entered it with their weapons at the ready, their flashlights searching the room. At the front of the hatch was a pile of bodies that were ripped to shreds by Dave's grenade. The Engineering bay was filled with zombies and they were agitated. They rushed the three.

"Here they come!" yelled Sebastian. But the other two weren't worried. Yuki pulled out a flare and dropped it to the deck. Dave pulled out his Uzi.

The zombies reached the group and attempted to bring them down, but the three didn't even let them close. Sebastian was deadly accurate with his M-4, Dave was taking out multiple zombies at a time with bursts from his submachine gun, while Yuki took out ones in the distance with her bolt-action rifle. Any zombie that did venture too close was taken down instantly by Yuki. While one hand was firing and somehow racking the bolt back, her other hand wielded a combat knife that cut deep into the zombies guts, burst out of their backs, and ripped out their spines, sending them falling to the deck, dead again. The three moved together through the room, clearing every nook and cranny. With the new mutation if the virus, it took them some time, since they had to make sure that the zombies were either dismembered or spineless. After a while of searching and clearing the room, the group discovered the electrical systems control panel. Yuki went to the system and found that it had been locked down by the bridge controller. She overrides the system after entering in a complex stream of codes and the power flickered on. The lights came back on and the room was lit for them to see their work. There were limbs and dead bodies everywhere. The room was spattered with blood. They heard something in the corner and they went over to investigate. There was a pile of bodies and it moved. Dave poked it with his sword and he heard somebody yell out. A hand reached out and moved one of the bodies aside. It was one of the sailors from the ship. In his hand was a bloody wrench. The group trained their weapons on him.

"Wait! Don't shoot, I'm not one of them!" he said.

"What are you doing under all those bodies?" asked Sebastian.

"I- I did what I had to survive. It was terrible. I was down here working when I heard screams from above. I went up to investigate, but all I found were my crew covered in blood. They rushed me, and I pushed them off. But one of them bit me. He pointed at the festering bite mark on his arm. I didn't know what else to do, so I pulled out my wrench and started cracking skulls. They rushed and rushed, but I didn't know what else to do. I was so scared. Soon I heard the hatch close and the lights went out. I hid under the bodies. I'm so ha-" he was stopped by Dave shooting him in the head.

"What the hell, man!" said Sebastian staring at him in disbelief.

"Isn't it obvious? This is how the infection spread. One single person can infect a ship of this size. We cannot risk this infection leaked any further. If they have been bitten, then they must be killed. I don't know how Brick will feel about us having to kill his wounded, but this must be done. Meiko and Kanade are in danger. We have to get to them before those wounded Specters we brought on board turn and wake up," said Dave reloading his Uzi.

"Agreed, the virus has to be eliminated at all cost until a cure is found," said Yuki.

"Damn it! When will this nightmare end?" said Sebastian exasperatedly.

"Once this virus is completely dead," commented Dave, looking down at the dead sailor curiously.

And with that the three exited the engineering bay and made their way back up to go and warn Meiko and Kanade.

Meanwhile, Kyon, Khalid, and the two remaining Specters made their way through the ship, killing the infection, and helping survivors. They had lost two of the Specters earlier as they made their way through the ship. They fought gallantly, but were overwhelmed. Despite their losses, they continued on, fighting room by room. As they made their way through the hallway, one of the Specters stopped. Kyon, who was in the lead, stopped also, halting the group. The Specter had his hand up to his ear.

"I'm picking up something on the com-link," he said. The other Specter checked his and also acknowledged that he was hearing something.

"Give me that thing," said Khalid taking the com-link from the Specter and putting it in his ear.

"This… Hong. We are… Need of immediate… Under attack… Wounded… Dead…. Medical Bay… Others with… Our own… The transmission was broken up by static due to them being so far into the ship. Gunfire could be heard along with the screams of the undead. The transmission ended.

"Hong?" asked Khalid.

"Hong Meiling. She's one of our lieutenants. She opted to stay behind with the others and make sure that our wounded got medical attention," said the Specter who's com-link Khalid had taken.

"It sounds like they need our help. From the message, I guess they are in the medical bay. Anybody have any idea the way to get there?" asked Kyon.

"If I remember the schematics from this ship correctly, it shouldn't be that far from the galley," said the other Specter.

"Galley?" asked Kyon.

"The kitchen," answered Khalid.

"Oh yeah! Let's go, and lets go save Meiling and the others. Maybe I can get something to eat too…" said Kyon.

"We've got more important things to do besides eat, but you're right, let's go," responded Khalid.

The group took off down the passage way in search of the kitchen, and they soon enough entered it. It was a wide open room, filled with long rows of tables with seats attached to them. Apparently some of the crew members had been eating when the infection had broken out since there was still half eaten food out and drinks on the tables. The undead walked through the galley, searching for people.

"Let's clear it. And remember, we have to dismember them. We don't want to make the same mistake we made with our friends," said Kyon, remembering the fallen Specters.

"Yeah," they commented.

They methodically went through the galley and began killing the zombies. Kyon who had lost his frying pan when he went in a rage earlier was forced to use his sawed-off shotgun that he kept as back up. He blasted zombies apart with his weapon. Khalid on the other hand made quick work of his zombies, cutting off heads and limbs with his pike like he was harvesting wheat. The other two Specters who were using more conventional had resorted to using their pistols and knives. They worked in conjunction, one would head shot the zombie, causing it to momentarily fall and the other Specter would immediately hop on the zombie and begin his gruesome task of either hacking the zombies limbs off with his combat knife or going into the back of the zombie and de-spining it. Kyon had worked his way into the kitchen and his eyes lit up. On one of the counters was a brand new cast iron skillet. The only thing that was in his way was a particularly large zombie holding a knife. The zombie wore an apron that was obviously stained with blood. He was a cook who had been turned.

"Whoo! A new weapon! All I gotta do is get past this his guy," said Kyon happily. He pointed his shotgun and pulled the trigger, but it clicked empty. He patted his body looking for shells, but he was out of ammo. Not to be deterred, he grabbed the barrel of his shotgun and charged the zombie. The zombie reached out for him, but Kyon ducked and brought the stock up under the zombies chin and knocked it back. The zombie seemed to absorb the blow. The knife wielding zombie once again reached out for Kyon and this time it succeeded. The knife cut into Kyon's side, making a deep gash. "Damn it!" he yelled in a fit. With a mighty push, Kyon pushed the zombie off and away from him. Kyon swung with all his might at the zombies head, and he connected, crushing the zombies head in. The zombie collapsed to the ground. Kyon ripped the knife from the zombies hand and pierced it through the zombies gut until he found the spine. He ripped it out and cut off the zombies head. He looked down at his side and saw the blood dripping down from the knife gash. "*hit happens," he said holding his side and picking up his newly earned weapon, the skillet. By that time, Khaliid and the two Specters had finished up in the main dining room and made their way back to the kitchen where they found Kyon. Khalid rushed over to Kyon after noticing his bloody side. Khalid stepped back for a moment.

"You didn't get bit did you?" asked Khalid cautiously.

"No. The zombie cut me with a knife though. I guess I was being careless," he responded holding his side from which blood leaked through his fingers.

"I got him," said one of the Specters who was holding some gaze which he had taken out of his personal first aid kit. The Specter wrapped the wound up for Kyon.

"I'm good now, thanks. Now let's find your friends," said Kyon hefting his new skillet.

"It's not that far now. I'll lead the way," replied one of the Specters. They went down the hallway and they began hearing firing. They stopped at a sign that read Medical Bay.

The gunfire continued as they ventured further down the hall. The entered the room and were met with a bloody sight. There were Specters and medical staff strewn across the deck. Some of them were still moving. Others walked toward a lab that had been barricaded in. Gunfire came from the barricade and hit the zombie Specters and medical staff who lumbered towards them, determined to feast on living flesh. Kyon, Khalid, and the two Specters jumped out of the room when the gunfire started to shoot at them.

"We're on your side!" yelled Khalid

"And so were they!" yelled a female voice from the other side of the wall.

"We're here to save you!" yelled Kyon back.

The group responded to them by increasing their firepower.

"Ollie, Ollie, oxen, free!" said one of the Specters.

The gunfire stopped.

"Crow, is that you?" asked the female voice.

"Yes ma'am!" he responded.

The gunfire stopped. "Well why didn't you say something sooner? I was about to kill you along with them," said the woman.

"It's kinda hard to talk while somebody's shooting at you, ma'am" said the Specter named Crow.

"I thought you better than that. Anyway, why aren't those guys dying? We've been putting round after round into them, but they just keep getting back up. They aren't any regular zombies, that's for sure. And these cowards back here won't let me out to take care of them myself," she said.

"We'll handle it!" said Kyon speaking up.

"Who's that?" she asked.

Kyon didn't respond. He ran into the room and began his attack. Seeing Kyon charging in, Khalid and the other two Specters followed. The zombies turned from their assault on the barricade and turned to face the new comers. Kyon dashed ahead and put his new skillet to use. He swung left and right, crushing heads in with ease. As the bodies fell, Khalid and the other Specters went about dismembering them so they would no longer rise. Soon enough they had the room cleared out. The ground was now littered with body parts and slain zombies. Kyon flicked his frying pan and blood went flying off unto the ground.

"It's safe now," said Kyon.

The barricade began to move as the people behind it began to remove the obstacles. Kyon and the others went to assist. They soon had the barricade removed and the two groups were face to face. In front of the group from the medical bay stood a woman with long red hair, she was apparently the one who had been talking to them from the other side. She carried an assault rifle and two pistols. Her knuckles were wrapped with tape and they were bloody. Behind her stood a large group of about 20 Specters and a large group of crew men.

Kyon extended his hand. "The name's Kyon. It's a pleasure to meet you." The woman took his hand and shook it. She had a very strong grip that seemed to be made of steel. "Meiling," she said smiling.

She turned away from Kyon and Khalid introduced himself to her. She nodded and went over to the other two Specters.

"It's about time you two showed up. I was beginning to think that nobody heard my message," she said.

"My bad, ma'am, we've been trying to clear up the ship. We didn't know what happened to y'all. We lost Seventy-Four and Thirty-Eight on our way here though," said Crow.

"We've lost a lot too as you can see. I want to kill the bastard who set us up. We're homeless thanks to him," she said looking down at the Specters that they were forced to kill.

"What happened exactly?" said Khalid trying to change the subject.

"After Shogou and Brick took off with you all, I rushed down to medical to check on our guys. By the time I got to the bay, it appears that the outbreak already occurred. The ones who were bitten by the Hellhounds apparently had broken free of the room and began attacking crew men on the ship. That's when the lights went out. The crew barricaded the door of this room with the rest of us. We thought we were safe, but there was also the "dead" that we had in here. They came back to life or something and got up and started attacking us. We volunteered to hold them off while the crew barricaded themselves in the back of the lab. We poured fire in them, shot their heads, and everything, but they just wouldn't die. We eventually were forced to fall back behind the barricade and hold our position. We've been holding here ever since. What about you guys? What have y'all been up to?" she asked.

"It's a long story, ma'am," said Ninety-Six.

"Yeah, we've still got to clear the ship, but now that we got the rest of y'all with us, it shouldn't be too hard. So let's finish this job and get back to the bridge and see what else needs to be done," said Khalid.

"Alright then, but what about the bodies?" she asked.

"We'll come back to properly dispose of them later, they won't be getting up right now though, so we'll worry about them at another time. We need to take care of the ones who are still walking around," said Khalid.

"Alright then, let's get moving. You heard the man; we're to clear the ship. You've also seen how to take them down. Destroy the bodies. Put a grenade in their mouth or something. Blow them up, have some fun. We've been holed up too long, let's have some fun for your fallen brothers," said Meiling.

"Yeah!" yelled the Specters. They rushed out and began their quest to clear the ship.

"Haha, those boys do enjoy killing. How about you? You look like you could cause some damage. And I've never seen any quite as skilled with a skillet as you," said Meiling facing Kyon.

"We'll I've been known to bash a head in or two…" he said with a shrug.

She punched him in the shoulder and he winched. "Ow."

"Can you cook?" she asked.

"What?" asked Kyon.

She smiled. "Come on. There are some more skulls to bash in, and I'm itching to get some killing in myself. Let's do this," said cracking her knuckles.

And with that Kyon, Khalid, Meiling, and the rest of the remaining Specters returned to the business of clearing the ship.

Back on the deck, Dugger, Shogou, Brick, Kyon, and the five Specters with them breached the hatch that leads up to the bridge. It was still dark since at this point in time Dave, Yuki, and Sebastian had not returned the power on yet.

"Stay frosty. Who knows what's hiding around here," said Dugger.

They nodded and entered after Dugger. He flipped on his flashlight and attached it to his web-gear. He flashed the light around the room and he saw somebody in the corner. "I'm not falling for that trap," thought Dugger to himself. Dugger took a round out of one of his spare magazines and flicked it at the person in the corner. They didn't move. "Thought so." Dugger ran up and kicked the person in the back. They went face first into the wall and slid down it. Dugger flipped them over with his weapon. It was one of the officers. It was obvious he was dead. Dugger put another round in his head just to be sure. "Alright, y'all let's move." They followed Dugger up the first ladder well, but as Sven got ready to pass by the officer that Dugger killed, the zombie grabbed Sven's leg.

"Oh freak no!" yelled Sven. He kicked at the zombie's head, which was now vacant of its brains due to Dugger blowing them out, with such force that the zombies head was ripped from its body and went flying into the adjacent wall. Despite the zombie no longer having its head, it continued to move. "Man, freak this." Sven took out his katana and chopped the zombie to pieces. "Let's see you move now," he said as he wiped his blade off on the zombie's clothes.

"What the hell?" asked Brick as he watched the spectacle.

"This can't be good," commented Shogou.

"Well, this changes things a bit," said Dugger also watching the scene. "No matter. We'll just be more through with our work. Whatever we kill, we make sure it's dead. That means head shots aren't effective as they once were. Destroy the body, that's how we'll take them down. But let us continue on, we have to reach the top."

The group continued up the ladder wells fighting their way all the way to the top where they found the main hatch ajar. Outside of it were several dead guards. There wasn't enough even left of their bodies to even dead check them. By this time the lights had come back on, so the bridge was lit by the running lights. There were bodies strewn everywhere. It would appear that they had been overrun. They checked the bodies and they soon came upon Commander Mark. In his hand was a pistol. It was empty. He was surrounded by the spent shell chasings. His body was in a terrible state. He had multiple gashes across his body and it looked like his bones had been broken.

"Man, what could have done this?" asked Sven.

"I don't even know, although I have a faint idea," said Shogou.

"As do I. But let's hope that isn't true," said Brick.

"Judging from his wounds, I'd say it probably is a Ravager." said Dugger.

"A Ravanger?" asked Sven.

At just that moment there was an extremely loud roar from behind them and one of the Specters went flying across the room and out the window. The wind from the storm raging in outside blew in the broken window.

They turned around.

Dugger sighed. "That."


End file.
